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Show HARRY BREWER'S CASE. Harry Brewer, a young criminal who committed a murder for which no extenuating ex-tenuating circumstances have been found, has secured a reprieve until the next regular meeting of the board of pardons on the third Saturday in October. Octo-ber. The reprieve was granted because certain prominent ladies and gentlemen interested themselves in the sluyer and asked for mercy. The disinterested obsorvcr cannot but wonder what it was that gained the sympathy of the mcu and women who pleaded for the murdoror. A glance at the newspaper accounts failed to reveal nny circumstance that a court would consider. We read that Brewer is young and good looking, that he frankly admitted ad-mitted the murder of Eugene Allen as well as many other crimes, that he gazed at the members of the pardon board "frankly and fearlessly" when he told . of his life of crime, that he talked about his mother somewhere in Canada. And when one of the ladies pleading for him quoted that passage of the Bible in which the Master says, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,'1 Brewer Brew-er bowed his head and wept like a babe. Brewer's attitude was calculated to arouse sympathy among sentimental persons per-sons who fail to look at the other side of the picture, and who fail to realize the perils that Ho in a feeble enforcement enforce-ment of the laws provided for the protection pro-tection of tho public against criminals, especially those criminals who are prepared pre-pared and ready to kill in order to accomplish ac-complish thoir objects. We imagine that a criminal need not have more thau average intelligence to look "frankly and fearlessly," or in any other fashion necessary to gain sympathy that may save him from the death penalty. Perhaps it would not ho difficult under such circumstances to weep at almost any scriptural verse that might be uttered. But are these sound reasons for asking a commutation or even a stay of sentence for one who has had a fair trial and has been condemned con-demned to death by the verdict of a jury which had all the evidence before it? The only real justification for a reprieve re-prieve or a commutation of sentence would be new evidence, evidence which had never been placed before the jury. Mo such evidence has been offered. Brewer admits his guilt and. so far as we now recall, suggests only two vague, and, from a legal viewpoint, meritless, excuses. Ho says that in the act of night time burglary he was surprised by the sudden appearance of Eugene Allen, and, being in fear for his own life or of capture, he shot Allen to death, though Allen had no weapon and made no attack at-tack upon him. His other plea seems to be that he was led astray in early youth by criminal companions, men and women. Tfe believe we are safe in assuming as-suming that this latter plea could be made by most criminals, even by the criminals who were Brewer's' evil geniuses. N The attorney for Brewer suggested one other reason for mercy "a growing grow-ing sentiment in this community against capital punishment.'' The Tribune, which his consistently demanded the enforcement en-forcement of criminal laws, does not desire de-sire to appear in the light of demanding the death penalty for the sake of the death penalty. It is merely demanding that weak sentimentality should not be permitted to interfere with the due course of justice. If the law provided merely for a prison sentence, The Tribune Trib-une would be found urging tho imposi tion of that sentence. But The Tribune long has realized to what degree the inadequate in-adequate enforcement of the laws against murder has been responsible for the appalling growth of homicide in this country. Last year there were 19.000 homicides in the United States, aud net 10 per cent of those responsible for the slayings were punished. We do not cite the laxity of law enforcement en-forcement throughout the land as a reason rea-son why any man should be condemned and punished unjustly, but there is nothing to indicate that Brewer is not receiving exact justice. Those men and women who have permitted their hearts to be touched by the youthfulness of the criminal and his talk about his mother, seem to have lost sight of the fact that there is a mother io Bingham canyon who is mourning the death of a niur-; niur-; dered son who was her sole support. Save they thought of that mother and of other mothers of Utah whose sons maT be murdered if we neglect to en force the slate's statutes against the 'rcitcst of crimes? There was another man involved in the .-rime De Pretto. He, too, has been condemned to death and ha, been reprieved, re-prieved, but no sympaThi'tic la. lies and g'-ntleinen seem to be interested in him. He is 'l.'J years of age. He is sot young and perhaps he has not enough sense to weep at a Bible verse. But the evidence evi-dence is that it was Hrewer and not Dn Pretto who fired the fatal shot. Do Pretto was upstairs in the Miners' Mercantile store when Allen was killed, and he was condemned to death because he was with Brewer actively participating participat-ing in the crime which led to the murder. mur-der. Here is a case, not for sentimentality, but for the serious consideration of the entire state, reasoning in the normal light of common sense. Respect for the laws, especially the laws against crimes of violence, is essential to the security of any civilized community. If we do not respect the laws how can we expect criminals to respect them? Tf we do not enforce the laws against murder, how can we expect hardened criminals to refrain from murder? |