OCR Text |
Show MILS. FAIR'S CASE. The verdict of the jury acquitting Laura D. Fair of the murder of Crittenden Crit-tenden in San Francisco, either marks a new era in the criminal history of the country or is the crowning stone in a departure commenced several years ago. From this time, if the law as administered in the cases of Sickles, of Cole, and of Mrs. Fair is to be the rule of the courts, human life hangs by a slender thrcud. The plea of insanity in-sanity is only a flimsy pretext. No one believes that either of the persons named were insane, and all the verdicts ver-dicts of all the juries in the world will not change that deep seated conviction, convic-tion, aye knowlcdgo, that the notion of insanity is only an invention of the lawyers, a fiction coined to bribe the consciences of the jurors we will not say of the courts. The real crime in each case was a violation of tho seventh commandment. Why is an infraction of tha: law more heinous than that against theft, against lying, or against dishonoring parents not to mention that against murder? Why may not the excuse of insanity clear the murderer mur-derer of him who insults bis father? or the skillful Bwindler who robs his children? or tho libeller who strives to blacken his character? Is the code of Draco which punished slight offences offen-ces by death and pronounced no more grievous sentence upon tho weightier crimes because none could be invented, to be again tbe rule of action? In our judgment such verdicts arc the result of tho prevalence of licentiousness licenti-ousness which is catered to by tho flash prints and indecently illustrated sheets to be found in eve:y news stand. By thete the mind is corrupted by rendering render-ing the scenes of vice and crime familiar fami-liar to the eye. Of all wrongs against the individual tho taking of life is the mo.H grievous, and tho sooner wo return re-turn in faith and practice to tho only true doctrine that no trcspa&j upon the rii: tits of another can justify the takiug ot the hie of tho trespasser, tho sooner will a step be taken iu the right direction. direc-tion. It is ouly to the teachings of the vicious that tho prevalence of murder is duo. Tlio Ma-tor said ' ho that is without amuDg you, let him first east a stone at her." Tho lat exposition exposi-tion of the law is that the discarded bawd who has already brought diagraco upon a respectable family, may innocently inno-cently tako tho lite of her recusant lover. JUsiiTIA. |