HABITUAL CRIMINALS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 57, 30 November 1907, Page 12

HABITUAL CRIMINALS.

Mr. Bonaparte, the United States torney-Goncral has (writes the San Francisco representative of the "Argus") come out with the-startling suggestion that;-the death i>onaltv should be metod out to habitual criminals; ■ The criminal law, he said, in ail address to the National Prison Congross, must be judged by its results to tlio community at large." If it diminished crimo and made obedience to the law-more, prompt and general, tlion it was a good law., Its effects on law-breakers, while" worthy of noto, were, ho went on, of vastly less importance. Punishment failed if' the criminal remained as dangerous to society after he had suffered as he was beforo. Then the Attornoy-Guieral proceeded:—"We have developed a class of men who pass'-a very large part of their adult lives in prison, using their intervals of liberty, only to dovise and oxocuto crimes; I would not have a man hanged for trifling theft; but I would have modern society cease to nourish and shelter its proved ' and inveterate enemies. Wlion a man has been threo times convicted of major crimes, he should be liable to death penalty. There has been a deal of stimulating discussion of this almost revolutionary proposal. On the whole, the writers in tho Press do not seem to think-that capital punishment would diminish crimo of tho class roforrcd to, and tho oxamplo of England in tho early part of last century, when men wore banged for stealing a loaf of broad, is frequently cited as showing that undue harshness does not tend to check wrongdoing.",