Salt Lake Telegram | 1934-06-23 | Page 4 | Correct, Mr. Mayor

CORRECT MR m. l IA MAYOR WHEN Mayor A. A 0 O. Smoot of Provo spoke TI before the Utah Peace Officers' Officers association in convention in the thc Utah county capital Friday Friday Fri Fri- day he lie voiced a conviction held b by b p the vast ast majority majority ma ma- of thoughtful citizens of the thc the state Wholesale pardoning of dangerous criminals he declared seems to eal reveal that the board of pardons has developed the habit of turning them loose simply in order to make room for new hew arrivals Searching fo for mot motives cs in many recent actions by the board fails wholly to disclose disclose dis dis- disclose dis- dis close any other motive Abuse of powers by bythe bythe bythe the boa board d has practically Uy nullified efforts to combat crime by police sheriffs prosecutors and the courts Our prisons may be overcrowded said Mayor Smoot but the thc remedy is not to release criminals who have proved they are a menace to society Correct Mr 1 Mayor but Mayor hut how i is the board boardo o of pardons to be made conscious a of its responsibility responsibility to society Mayor t ot pointedly remarked that it must be discouraging to you Oll officers after you JOU have ha risked your jour lives to arrest a man and the the state has ha's spent large sums to convict him hint to find the convict is is' back sticking slicking a gun in your YOUl face a few months aft after r. r It is discouraging discouraging and and disgusting not only to police officers but to law-abiding law and respecting law-respecting citizens as well The rhe board convenes month after month mouth and considers a abat bat batch h of applications for clemency that seems to be a a roster of the entire aggregation of inmates inmates inmates in in- mates of the penitentiary Unless there is a delegation of citizens on hand to protest sufficiently suf sur- fi sentimentality overrules the facts of ot the crimes s the evidence nce offered hi in court ourt the verdicts of or the juries and the judgments of the magistrates It is an absurd thing that liat in order to l keep a convict confined the public which supports the state prison and its court system must itself be e on the alert to see sec that the orders of the court are not counteracted by the pardoning authority Continuation of its blind policy of turning miscreants loose without rhyme or reason is bound to produce a public pubic reaction that will vilI demand repeal of the thu law cr creating the par pardons ons board and providing for extension of clemency in III proper cases This would be a t distinct s social so cial loss The Thc law is altogether desirable but lut its framers certainly must have haye had in mind that it would be carried out thoughtfully and intelligently and not on the basis of maudlin sentimentality or political influence