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Show uu SOME MERIT IN CONTENTION (Butte Minor) There appears to be somo element of justice in tho complaint of the four notorious New York gunmen, who are sentenced to bo electrocuted In April, that they should not be executed exe-cuted as long as the arch criminal of the quintet, Lieutenant Charles Becker, Beck-er, has ibeen givei a new trial. In public estimation, at least the lloutenant is tho worst criminal of tho bunch, so that it would ,seom that tho governor would be juBtiflod in reprieving those four wretched stool pigeons until such time as It shall develop what disposition thte jury makes of Beckor on hb second trial. If he is found guilty again of murder mur-der In tho first degree, then tho five should suffer death together, but should he get off with a lighter sentence, sen-tence, then the other four would appear ap-pear to bo entitled to receive IJke punishment. There is no doubt but -what the four condemned men shot down Herman Her-man Rosenthal, and the evidence bdows that they did bo at the Instiga tion of Lieutenant Becker. The law books are full of such cases, and in every Instance the Individual In-dividual who procured a crime to be done is held to be a greater criminal crim-inal than the man or men who actually actual-ly performed the deed. A striking instance of this ruling, within the memory of nearly everyone every-one was the case of Harry Haywood of Minneapolis, who was hanged for promoting the murder of a woman, while the tool who committed the deed got off with a lighter sentence, . nn |