THE DEATH PENALTY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 676, 29 November 1909, Page 6

THE DEATH PENALTY.

It ■is announced to-day .that the Crown has granted a , reprieve. M to . thq. yoijrig'man Kobehts who was . the other day sentenced to death on a. charge of murder. Tho considerations which: governed the action of tho. Executive are" not made public, but it is difficult not to feel that the plea of: insanity .which alone could; justify the reprieve-was, on.the published evident, & weak one. Capital punishment .is an unpleasant" feature of our,system of - justice,. and it is unpleasant to appear to advocate any. particular application of it, but the matter is one 'ot gravo public, concern and wo feel constrainod to ■ refer to the subject. The man Roberts committecThis' crime in exactly the circumstances in which every crime.: jmsswnd, as the French have it, is always committed. : The' evidence, given'at the trials in the lower and: upper Courts did not indicate that the prisoner was insane,, unless .the act'pf njurder is in itself a proof pf - insanity.; Further evidence of a convincing kind may have been brought beforo the Exeoutivej ,|;but the circumstances of the crimp were so plain, and the state of prisoner was so fully set forth in the evidence, that the Executive's ac-' tion. galls for explanation. If this caso is to stand as a precedent for the future, it seems _to us on the ovidence disclosed that capital punislunent, in this; parties lar class of murder ease, might as well bo abolished. . Most people aro agreed that the acceptance in America of new doctrines regarding " brain-storms" is a bad'signj. and if it is a bad thing in America, it is a bad thing here, that quack 'psychology should interfere with the. course of criminal law. The defence; of Roberts did, as a matter of fact, suggest that the man committed his crime in an access of passion that made him irresponsible for his action; ' Perhaps thai; is true; but it is so with a 'large proportion of cases of sudden murder. The object of capital punishmont, ' wo ' tako it, is not so much punishment for one as a warning to . others. The .instinct to slay is still strong in men, and one can only guess at the. nutabcr of occasions upon which mqn, stirred by strong passions,. 1 have-been ' checkcd on v the brink by the thought of the consequences. '.Remove . the only, check, and .. many will topple over the brink in q. desperate, decision that the price they will pay is not cxccssivo./ In tho exercise of its powers of clemency, tho Crown, therefore, must ever/keep before;.it "its duty to. the public. We trust that in the present case the .Executivo. will be able to; clear a\vay, tho. doubts which: most .'certainly;'wHl arise'; in tho minds of' thoso who have only the published cvidcnco of the trial to,'guide '.them,