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Show 1 TIIK FRANKS Ml KDKIt CASE. 1 The boys who killed the Franks , hoy In Chicago pleaded guilty and threw themselves on the mercy of the court. In Illinois persons charged with murder in the first degree may legally plead guilty. It is not permitted In this state. The murderers having legally confessed con-fessed It seems to the avorage man I that all that remains Is for the I court to determine If there be any 1 ' mitigating circumstnnces calling for ' 1 Judicial leniency. What has been going on In a Chicago court room I 1 lor days Is said to be the effort of I Hie court to discover mitigation. If t be shown, not death but Impris-li Impris-li : nment will, presumably, be the punishment prescribed. ! It is denied that efforts are being , made to determine the sanity of the 1 murderers. The state's attorney, ' ' however, evidently believes that the i ' effort is merely to make plain to the i 1 court that the murderers are de-1 de-1 mented and therefore irresponsible. 1 ' That decision would doom them to Incarceration in an asylum. Thus far the proceedings before the court have been of a character ' to confuse the layman. Alienists 1 have talked about the things that , : arch criminals in short, the ex perts have built up a theory of irrt? ponslbility based on the imaginings, lolng and aspirations of childhood. The Franks boy was murdered In old blood by two young men who jiew that the deed they were ?ommiting was criminal because they took steps to cover theii tracks. That they did not succeed does not alter the fact that thej tried. They knew that the law forbade for-bade them to kill and that punish-ment punish-ment had been provided for murderers mur-derers in order to deter people fron following the Impulse to kill. The average man can see In th( whole matter just what we hav outlined. To him it seems absurc to undertake to show irresponsl bility on the part of the murderer! in view of the evidence to the effeci that they knew all the while whai they were doing, the punishmen for the crime and the outcome o: the matter in case they were caught The hisetory of the crime in de tail establishes the sense of respon sibility on the part of the murderers If every murderer is to be deal with gently7 because in cbildhoot he wanted to become a killer bu what's the use? The whole pro ceeding seems to mock justice ! |