48 SPITZKA— OBSERVATIONS REGARDING INFLICTION [April 23. 



The question "Is capital punishment justifiable"? has agitated 

 the minds of men ever since the dawn of civilization. Public opin- 

 ion is never so fickle with regard to any problem of life as this one. 

 My own opinion is a firm conviction in favor of it for those who 

 commit premeditated murder, arson, train-wrecking and bomb- 

 throwing. Society needs this penalty for its own protection and it 

 is authorized to use it. The Mosaic law " Thou shalt not kill " 

 refers to murder and not to legal execution. The fear of death is 

 in most men and it is therefore the most powerful means of intimi- 

 dation. Optimists may hope to see society organized upon such an 

 enlightened plane that the penalty need not be resorted to — but that 

 time is not yet at hand. In nearly every county or state which abol- 

 ished the penalty, the subsequent increase in crime aroused a clamor 

 for its reestablishment. 



The opinion is held by some that the penalty fails to act as a deter- 

 rent for others. The argument is puerile, for this country at least, 

 inasmuch as only 1.3 per cent, of homicides are convicted. In Ger- 

 many 95 per cent, are convicted, or, proportionately, thirteen times 

 as many. Were the penalty as rigorously enforced in the case of 

 murder as the whipping-post is used in Delaware for various crimes, 

 its deterrent effects would soon become manifest. It is idle to talk 

 of anything but prompt punishment as a deterrent of crime. 



Thus, in New York City, in 1904, there were 147 first degree 

 murders ; but there were only o.^ convictions and only two were 

 executed. In the same year, in Philadelphia, 48 murder trials re- 

 sulted in only 7 verdicts of murder in the first degree and several 

 of these, on re-trial, received minor sentences. London, with 6,000,- 

 000 inhabitants, had 24 murders ; 9 were hanged therefor. Chicago, 

 with 2,000,000 inhabitants, had 128 murders ; only i was hanged. 



The tardy justice meted out to murderers is the most deplorable 

 feature of our legal machinery to-day. There are too many loop- 

 holes for escape — long delays, endless appeals, lots of slush about 

 the " unwritten law," numerous legal technicalities and sentimental 

 juries. By the pettifogging of criminal law the great majority of 

 cases are granted new trials in the United States ; in Great Britain 

 only 3.5 per cent. Nearly always the appeal is based upon points of 

 pleading and practice and many years elapse before the final settle- 



