The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-01-19


trOduced in the present ses-
sion of the Indiana General
Assembly will be based on
many Of the commission sug-
gestions.
Most social welfare students agree
that the contemplated legislation
should deal in part with one neg
Iected phase of parole and pardon
policy-the treatment Of persons
convicted Of unnatural crimes.
Such a person is Coyner and 1t
is argued BY those who have de-
voted study to the case histories Of
persons of his type that had
policy Of no clemency for unnatural
criminals been in effect, the ghast-
II crime TO which he ha confessed
would have been averted.
Coyner mas admitted the murder
and mutilation of a Mississippi man
and his wife, as related, only six
months after his release from the
Indiana State Prison. True, he was
Ioosed upon society after serving
almost eight years of a three-to-
ten-year sentence.
Linked to other Crimes
But, his sentence was for robbing
a grave of the body Of a young
woman and in addition, using 1t for
degenerate pUrpOses-One of the
few Offenses which social welfare
experts declare can be classified
without argument as an unnatural
crime.
There was evidence, while Coy
ner still was in prison, it is pointed
out, that he was implicated in the
finding of four women's heads in a
trunk in Michigan more than eight
years ago.
Such a case history, these social
welfare students argue, is a con-
vincing demonstration of the need
for removal from prison trustees of
the right of pardon after expira-
ton of minimum sentence.
PsychiatriSt on Board
Accepted policy approves release
after serving of the minimum sem
tence where the prisoners record as
an inmate is good. Such a policy,
social welfare students agree, is de-
sirable. but not practical when the
inmates history is prima facie evil
dence that his reclamation obvious
" is impossible.
The remedy generally advanced
by some social experts is a non
political central parole beard which
must include in its membership at
least one competent psychiatrist
and at least one experienced social
worker.
Such a board, it is argued would
be likely to prevent a repetition of
the CHASTITY COyner case and might
be empowered to order sanity in
vestigations for prisoners of the
Coyner type, even after serving of
full sentence.
Case os Original Error
There is yet another school of
thought in The Coyner case. Its ad-
herents, while admitting the need
for a revision of the parole system,
insist that the Coyner case is one
of original error and that he should
have been confined and treated as
a mental case, rather than have
been confined in a penal institution.
Gov. McNutt, with the need of
penal reform glaringly revealed by
the Dillinger case, has correlated
his beliefs in a summary which pre-
Sumably is an indication of the
form of forthcoming legislation.
The keynote of his ideas is the
junking of the traditional methods
of fitting punishment to the crime
and substituting the theory of fit
ting punishment to the criminal.
Theory Is Held Practical
Such a theory. admittedly prac-
teal in the light of modern penal
experience, might serve in itself a.
an obstacle to further Coyner cases.
Its application could be broad
enough, of course, but cases of the
Coyner type at least are exceptions
where the crime istelf could be. the
sole determining factor.
Consideration of parole, of course,
must embrace the factor of the in
mates personal rights and the pos
SibiNty of his reclamation as
member of society.
But in the Coyner cases. only the
inmates menace to society need be
at issue.