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Show THE LAW S rENALTY. Society has once more avenged itaell upon one of ita oflending members, mem-bers, and Uaued what, in theory, is unotlur terrible warning that men nmat not murder, Wallace Wilier-son Wilier-son has been mado to pay iho full penalty that Iho inw pruvidea for bis crime. "A life for A life," ia what society has paid and taken in this caae. ThNiiRh this hiw been the rule aim Oft from the beginning ita juatice and utility may be and are seriously questioned. There is a wide and growing aentiment throughout Ohrii-tendon Ohrii-tendon and civilization against this inhuman modo ol retaliation upOD and protection against dangoroua indi-vidunla. indi-vidunla. Wo hope and believe the time will come, and aoon, when sociely geacrally will diacard thin barbarous syntem, the chief recommendation recom-mendation of which ia its antiquity. It in a mistaken idea that capital punishment lessens crime or dc-creuHea dc-creuHea the number or ratio of murders. mur-ders. Some of our American Btates have abolished the death penalty, and with excellent results. There is no instance in-stance among thorn where a return to the system has taken place. In thoae Btatea the ratio of murders has actually ac-tually decreased Bioce the death penalty was done away with. Swi'zsr-Iftnd Swi'zsr-Iftnd is the only foreign government of importance that ban abolished cipi:nl punishment, and while murder mur-der has iucreascd there during the few years that no lawful killings have been iud'.iignd in, it w s shown in these columns a lew days ago that the increase was not so much aa in other European countries, aa Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Francs and Italy, where the death penalty prevails and the law is viorouily enforced. en-forced. It ii not the fear of the scaffold that Teatrains men from murdering. They asldom, if ever, think of the executioner at the moment of killing. Iheae are afterthoughts. after-thoughts. Were the laws even more barbarous then they are, providing for the execution of the murderer by alow and cruel tortures, homicides would be as frequent as now, and society in no more danger from the men who kill. At the firat opportunity oppor-tunity we hope Utah will rank itself with the advanced and humane sentiment of the age, and wipe from its Btatute books the law that requires the shedding of human blood. It ia a relic of barbarous bar-barous and bloody ages, which this generation can afford to let perish among the many rules and laws and customs of the same periods which have lona since beendropped Society can protect itself equally well without this bloody statute, and cur civilization civiliza-tion should be above and beyond taking a cruel and terrible revenge. Wilkemon w&b undoubtedly a murderer. mur-derer. Ha shed the blood of a follow man without good came for the deed. According to our laws he thereby there-by forfaited bis own life; but who ha gained by bis death? Neither the cemmunity nor individuals individ-uals nri safer this morning than thty were yesterday, before the bullets pierced the criminal's body. His fiite will deter no one from murdering bereatter, for the man who kills will not carry in his memory as a warning tho execution of Wilkeraoa. Hia death cannot bring to life his victim, nor repair any wrong that has been done. The killing of Vilkereon HinounU to no more nor less than the gratification of a spirit o!' reveugo on tho part of pociety, aud as such is unworthy the Christian education, the int-lligence aud the humane aentiment of the age. |