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Show H WHY NOT THE AXMAN? H This paper repeatedly has said that capital punishment should H L be done away with. Here is what the sheriff,5 who executed the five M murderers in Chicago, says: , M "I am not so sure I believe in the wisdom of capital punish- H ment. It is the law and we arc here to carry out the law. But H it seems to me that imprisonment for life,without hope of commit- H tation or pardon, at hard labor, whose proceeds could be given to Ihe Hj widow, or orphans, or other dependents of the victim, would be a H greater deterrent to crime. Hl "I believe today's work will have a strongly deterrent effect H on crime for some time to come," continued the sheriff. ' It has M been a long time since the extreme penalty has been inflicted. But Hj I believe a better law for the punishment of murder could be mado." H Mayor Harrison declared: ' H "Sometimes I tbnik it would be better to do away with capital H) punishment and substitute life imprisonment. But the law should H make it impossible to escape the prison penalty except on evidence." H Nearly all murders are unpremeditated. The horrible crime of Hl taking a life is almost invariably the impulse of the moment, ex- Hj cept in the case of one who administers a poison. The murderer H who slays his victim in response to impulse would kill if the pun- H ishment were death on the rack, the gouging outj of eyes by hot H irons or qnartering. H If the enacting of a horrible scene is the cure for the crime H of murder, why not go back to the fearful modes of torture and Hj death of the earlier periods of barbarous man ? Hf If putting to death of human beings is intended as a deterrent H to crime, whjr not make the executions public, and, instead of H hanging, have the axman behead the murderers, so the blood may H bo seen to flow, and the heads mav be allowed to roll before the t gazing multitude, to be later impaled and displayed before the peo- R? pie of a city? That would be highly impressive. H If we seek to brutalize, while demanding an atonement, the H thing to do is to continue to exact capital punishment. |