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Show which extenuating cireumatancet warrant leniencybut leni-encybut that dee not apply to the coldblooded, cold-blooded, deliberate takinf of human life. At Supreme Court Justice James H, Wolfe, a member of the parole board, said In explaining explain-ing hit opposition to the commutation ol the death sentence mentioned above: "Mercy Itself should have tome basit in extenuating circumstances. circum-stances. All of us want to be mercifuL but we all have an affirmative duty to perform. Ia every case where a criminal ia to be executed, an appeal might be made to mercy, and If mercy Involved purely the matter of saving the condemned man from the terrible ordeal of execution, then every such sentence should be commuted.1' The fact remains that deliberate murder la the greatest crime against society. It must not . be condoned or lightly treated. No punishment punish-ment short of death or life imprisonment fits such a crime. Certainly six years in prison is no Just punishment, nor la It any serious deterrent to would-be murderers. And so long aa soft-hearted parole boards make "life In prison'' mean only six years la prison, the only punishment for deliberate murder mur-der that offers any protection to society ia the death penalty. ; Six Years for Cold-Blooded Murder RECENTLY the eases of three convicted murderers mur-derers have been prominently In the new. On was convicted of the cold-blooded murder mur-der of an Innocent bystander at tha killer was fleeing after a bank robbery. Another wat convicted of the deliberate murder of an aged man. apparently unnecessarily, unneces-sarily, during the commission of a robbery. The third was convicted of the premeditated murder of his son-in-law In a family quarreL All three cases were of murder In the first degree, with little or no extenuating circumstances circum-stances to recommend leniency. In each case the penalty waa life Imprisonment, In the case of two that sentence being fixed at the trial. In the other the death sentence being commuted by the state board of pardons. Ufa in prison! That's not too severe a penalty pen-alty for deliberate murder. I It? Perhap it Isn't too light, either. There are some good arguments against capital punishment and ' no doubt there are many cases In which death would be preferred to life behind prison bars. But wait a minute. A "life term" doesn't mean life In prison, by any means. Nor doe it mean confinement behind prison bars. Take one of tha cases mentioned above. Ha was sent up to prison for life. But he wasn't behind bars all the time. He was a trusty for a time, working outside prison walls, and he escaped twice. And then finally his "life term" ended with parole after 13 year. Tha other two? Well, if past experience la any criterion they won't actually spend tha rest of their live la prison either. The average life term served by convicted murderers In the United Unit-ed States at a whole is only about tlx years. So, you sea, life terms really aren't life - terms. That's Just a fiction. In fact, many times a murderer "sent up for life" serves a lot shorter term In prison than some burglar or robber who 1 tent np for a limited term of, say, 10 or 15 years. Six years for cold-blooded, deliberate murder! mur-der! That's the average punishment, save for those few cases In which the death penalty ends forever the possibility of parole. There's something wrong with a system of justice that permits such light punishment for murder. Granted there ax murder case in |
