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Show H i The Question of Capital Punishment. Kf - 5 The recommendation of the governor that the K "l r infliction of the death penalty in Utah for first H "H degree murder be changed from the present Bl ,i'Dthods of ehooting or hanging, at the election B a of the condemned to electrocution, and the sub- bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbP' B HKs sequent suggestion by Judge Marioneaux that the condemned criminal be given the opportunity to commit suicide, thus preventing the staining of any one's hands with the blood of a fellow being though ho be a condemned murderer, has called forth the usual wave of comment on the right to inflict capital punishment. One of the strongest discussions we have read on the subject was by Rev. Bowenrian of the Immanuel Baptist church of Salt Lake City, who, while decrying the duty of taking life by law, yet defended it as a necessity for the protection of society, and found justification for so doing in the holy scriptures. He began with the passage in Genesis which says that "he who sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be also shed," and says, in answer to some who oppose thp infliction of the death penalty as being contrary to the commandment "thou shalt. not kill," and the' omission fromthe new testiment of "any reference refer-ence to the right to take human life, that the first scriptural injunction was the law given by the sovereignty to the people for their government, govern-ment, or as we would say in present day legal phraseology, "the granting of police powers to the people," whilethe commandment referred to tho moral aspect, meaning tjiat no individual has a right to take life but that the sovereignty may, as a protection to the individual members oj organized society. Persons -who have studied the criminal problem prob-lem carefully and dispassionately Jiave found ample justification for infliction of the death penalty, and results in states and nations where the death df a murderer follows swift and sure after the commission of the '"crime, the number of murders and "homicides have been reduced to the minimum. As a result oi the loose methods of law enforcement in the United State?, particularly as it applies to (he taking of life, murder has reached a point where it is a disgrace to civilization. In comparison tofalmost any other civilized nation, we are a nation of human hu-man butchers. Murder runs rampant, and Swith the delays of court procedure, and the indifference of juries, a conviction is possible in but"a small proportion of the prosecutions- begun. A recent article in the New York Evening Sun gives some startling facts respecting murder and the prosecutions and convictions secured, and we quote from the Sun as follows: "Homicide, from deliberate murder . , down to manslaughter, fisv "entirely too ' commopJiUthe JUniUdiJ9ffi&? ceoydingt4 to the A'raerican Prison asfeciatipn's com- ; mittee on criminal procedure, homicid- ' al crime in the United States has increased increas-ed 450 per cent, since 1880; and the ratio of convictions is less than' 10 -per cent. In Germany the ratio of convictions is 95 ' per cent. Homicidal crime in the United according to the same authority, exceeds the total of that of any Uncivilized najv tions outside of Russia. 'Nearly thirty persons are murdered every day in the United States, not including: Alaska and the island independence lot ono out qf four murderers is brought to trial, and out of twenty-five brough'tIto trial only one receives a death sentence. ,Ten thous-' thous-' and homicide crimes are -committed in the United States each yfaofa In Chicago alone, in 1909, 118 homici'lecrimes were . committed; for the same time in London t 20 of tho same kind of crimes were com-mitted, com-mitted, and London is four times the size of Chicago. New York city last year had 119 cases of homicide. Tbeae figures are appaling and call for a close search of hearts by the American people. We are no less civilized than European nations. What then underlies this terrible discrepancy discrep-ancy in crimes involving human liife?" We believe the legislature of this state can be depended upon to retain the infliction of the death penalty in capital cases,, but as its infliction is intended not a means of revenge orvcruelty, but as a deterrent to others, we would favor the substitution of the electric chair for hanging, giving the condemned the right to choose between electrocution and shooting, both of which would be painless and humane. |