The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-04-24

AccOmpliSheS No Good Purpose
 Old creedS die hard. For every footstep forward the world ad- vances, 1t slips a hundred back ward. Still it is the duty of this present generation to leave no stones unturned to make this a potter world for the next and future generations. To make 1t & better world, war and capital punishment must go. Capital punishment is retained as prop by society, on the theory that it preyents other murders. This is an exploded conclusion, Dr. Charles Burleigh some years ago said on discussing that angle or capital punishment:
 "It is claimed that the death penalty will deter others from committing crime; that the ex- ample of a legal execution i'm poses 8 salutary restraint. II this be true, why was it abolished for minor offenses? Why are all its advocates and apologists agreed that it should apply to only one or two of the one hundred and sixty so-called capital crimes enumerated in the days of Sir William Blackstone, including premeditated murder, and de- scending through the scale of fine graduations to breaking down the head of a fish-pond, whereby fish may be lost"
 Its apologists explain that the death penalty for so many crimes was not proportionate to the o1- fense, and that it offended the sense of public justice - that 1t went into the discard because or its secerity. The man on the street, in normal mind, may per- haps incline to the opinion that the death penalty does deter others from murder, but 1t IS a matter of fact that when 8 man does commit murder that his con- dition is abnormal, and that rare- ly if ever, does punishment deter, because no thought is given m the heat of passion to the alter math of the act.
 Many Reasons Against It
 It may then be agreed that capital punishment as the pen alty for premeditated murder IS unnecessary because
 It is contrary to the whole trend of our present day civilization, and its use has steadily declined. Many crimes were once punished by the death penalty that are now punished by a fine or 8 short term of imprisonment. With the aboh- ton of capital punishment as tne penalty for minor crimes, the number of such crimes has oe- creased. In most countries capl- tal punishment is now on the law books as the penalty for only a small part of the cases where these crimes were committed.
 It is contrary to modern ideas of criminology and penology. Modern criminology considers crime either as a disease due to mental defects, or as the unfavor- able environment over which the criminal had no control, ana for which he was in no way responsible.
 Again figures prove that mur- der has steadily increased in states that still use the death penalty, or at least have it on their statute books, which proves that the death penalty is not an effec- tive deterrent. In states that have abolished capital punishment murders have have steadily de- creased. The complete abolition of capital punishment has been successful in Italy, Brazil, Holland, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Norway and in six of our 48 states. The State of Michigan abolished 1t in 1846, and for over seventy-five years has had no more murders than neighboring states were capital punishment is retained.
 The State Has No Moral Right
 The state has no moral right to kill. Calling things by their proper names, and seen as they are, capital punishment is murder, just as much as the deed of the accused murderer condemned of the deed. So that every taxpayer who pays taxes to pay the salary of A state executioner is also acc ceseory to the deed. If the tax- payer refused to lend his aid to such murders the practice would come to an end. The mandate Of the law to murder would not be obeyed. It may be . matter Of wonderment to many people that