The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1960-03-11
JOSEPH BREIC-
The Case Of
Caryl Chessman

| am not convinced for, or convinced against cap-
tai punishment.
Neither the pros nor the cons seem to me to have
proved their case.
But this | must say-opponents of the death PEN
atty turn my stomach when they plead their cause not
by offering evidence or logical argument, but by STIR
ring Uniformed persons into a worldwide emotional
orgy in favor of clemeney for Caryl Chessrnan.
Even so rational a publication as the Vatican City
newspaper 0sservatore Romano was drawn into the
swamp of sick sentimentality that has spread out from
Cheeseman's cell.
ossERvAToRE ALLEGED that Chessman had
suffered more than enough by being in death row in
San Quentin penitentary more than IL years.
This "slow agony" said Osservatore, has been IAN
unheard-of penalty
1t is easy and superfically popular - to talk
like that It is more difficult to get the facts and face
them clearmindedly, trying to balance justice, mercy.
humanity, and the rights of society.
cARYL CHESSMAN has been In death row for
IL years because he was clever and wealthy enough
to take advantage of all of the multitude of safeguards
with which American law surrounds the right of ln-
dividuals.
During those IL years, SO persons were executed
in San Quentin. I heard no uproar in Europe, Latin
America. England, or America in favor of clemency
for any of them. They were not masters of propa-
ganda.
Chessman earned more than 100000 because
he was permitted, in his cell, to have a library of law
books, a typewriter and paper, and all the time he
pleased to prepare his legal briefs and to write books.
AYB THIS WAS "slow agony and maybe
" CoC al QOS LILO ls hohi9S ON@ VI cN0
many jurists who upheld Cheeseman's sentence, said
the years in San Quentin would be hell for most peo-
pie. But here is no ordinary man One sees an ar
rogan, truculent man, the same qualities that Regina
and Mary two of his victims) met speWing vitrol on
one person after another. We see an exhlbitionlst who
never before had such opportunities for exhibition
| do not see how we can offer life as a prize tor
one who can stall the processes for a given number OF
years
Who were Regina and Mary?
They were young women, entitled to life and
liberty like the rest of us. One was a polio victim. The
other is now in a mental institution, considered a hope
less case.
Chessman was convicted of kidnapping these
young women, in separate incidents, at gun point, and
of forcing each, by holding a gun at her head, to SUBJ
NIT to his perverted lusts, despite their tears and pleas
for mercy.
ONE OF THE difficulties in explaining why the
death penalty was invoked against CheSsman lies IN
the fact that it is impossible to publish precisely what
he did to these victims. -
Sentence was imposed under CALIFORNIA; little
Lindbergh law" This is patterned on the federal
"Iindbergh law to which the American people resort
ed to halt to wave of abductions and murders which
eliminated in the heartless kidnap-killing of the in-
FAINT son of Charles E.. Lindbergh, first man to fly
across the Atlantic, and his wife Anne Morrow.
Cheeseman's life of crime started in early youth
and led him into several penal institutions for auto
theft, burglary, armed robbery, assault with a deadly
weapon, grand theft, four kidnapings, perverslon, at
tempted rape and attempted robbery.
IN PENETRATING his cruel abuses against
Mary ana heglld, anu IOuUlIlS tneiI 6oCullo dt guns
point, Chessman used a stolen auto with a spotlight
over which he could place a red transparent cover SO
that he could pose as a police officer to throw his vic.
Tins off guard.
Thus he cynlcally perverted law to his low and
perverted purposes.
DO NOR sAY that Chessman should be execut-
ed | do not say he should not. ! fear for his eternal
fate. but | fear for other Marys and Reginas, too. Ger
tainly / will have nothing to do with using so hideous
a case as the basis for brainless emotionalism against
capital punishment.