Nantwich, Sandbach & Crewe Star — 1890-04-05 ()

TOO YOUNG TO BE HUNG.  - - - - -The " DailyiNews " says, in a leading article on Wednesday, that the " painful scene" reported in their columns which took place in the condemned cell at Knutsford Gaol on Tuesday will Make Many' readers ask iinptheutly what the Home Secretary is about. It is scatcely possible that he can ititcnd to leave the*: two boys to the gallows. The jury did their duty in fin& nig them guilty of the wilful murder of their father, ut theIV.NQUIMCIaIed them to Macy on the ground of  their youth: If such rocommendations are never to be attended to, there will be serious difficulty in getting juries to convict in such cases. When the twelve men in the box know that their merciful intention will not be carried out, they will refuse, and will justly refuse, to find a verdict which will result in a sentence of death. We have little sympathy with much that has been said in favour of giving these boys a light punishment. That they were badly brought up is certain, that their father was a domestic tyrant of the worst kind is probable. The father's character, however, was not the subject id judicial inquiry, and it is worthy of note that the evidence on this point given at the inquest was entirely different from that adduced at the trial. However bad he was as a man, as a husband, or as a parent, even if it is true that he once almost killed their mother in the presence of these boys, we should be reluctant to grant that it extenuated murder. Nor does the sincere affection of these boys for their mother make what Hamlet calls the "deep damnation" of the father's taking off any less deep. We are not able, therefore, to symputhise with those who would treat the crime either lightly and leniently. After all has been said, it was a cruel, treacherous murder. But without in any degree palliating a frightful crime it is possible to feel the liveliest sympathy with the movement for saving these boys from the gallows. They are mere boys, and to hang them would be almost an outrage upon nature. The fact that so many people see extenuating circumstances in the case is a reason for sparing them. It is probably felt that their immature minds did not realise the horrid nature of the act to which their resentment at domestic tyranny and revolt from domestic misery impelled them. Their execution in the existing circumstances would certainly tend to frustate instead of forwarding the objects of punishment. We no longer act on the vindictive doctrine.of life flr life. A murderer is hung as a warning. He is made an example of. Other criminals are punished with the double object of reforming them and warning others. The execution of these boys would be felt to exceod the claims of justice. Instead of deterring criminals from committing puT:cide, it would tend, as we have alro-md3i said, to ueter juries. from convicting in similar easei:44- We trust, therefore, that. .. Mr. Matthews .will.see.his way to accede to the prayer of the large and influential petition presented to him a day or two since. To allow these boys to be executed •would give not only a serionsblow to capital punishment in England, but would make large numbers of the people to feel that the administration of justice', is not fitly tempered with mercy.