MOST LAWLESS COUNTRY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 November 1924, Page 14

MOST LAWLESS COUNTRY.

THE UNITED STATES.

10,000 MUBDEBS A YEAB

. The horrible Loeb and Leopold murder ease in Chicago, with its sensational denouement of the self-con-fessed murderers being allowed" to escape the nocse by the presiding judge (Judge Calverley), has given rise to an extraordinary wave of juvenile crime in various parts of the United States. Scores of incarcerated murderers who have not yet attained theif majority are clamouring for liberty; and many believe that • execution of, murderers has already been abolished by the urecedent created iii the Chicago “thrill murder” of the hoy. Fraiiks (writes, the Sah Francisco correspondent of the Aufckland Star). The gibbet in America is going tM way of the torture chamber and the debtors’ prison largely as a result of Chicago’s recent experiences, culminating now in the reprieve to Bernard Grant, 20-year-old slayer, whose stay of execution has been accepted as the next thing to assurance that his hanging, delayed seven times, will never take place. Such is the opinion of Clarence Darrow, defender of Loeb and Leopold, who has interpreted the extension. of temporary clemency to Grant hv Governor Small as indication of a more humane attitude on the part of the . public towards slayers.. * “The demand of a life for a life is waning in this country,”' Attorney Darrow said, when he learned of the Governor’s action in the case - of Grant. “People are becoming more hiymane. Grant will not hang, . aiid the saving of life .will act to bring clemency to others as the cry for hanging dies out.” • This view also was hopefully held by four hoys and girls charged in Chicago with killing .Mrs Bessie; Gaesslien. “They can’t hang us now that the others are getting off;” • was the refrain .of these youngsters,, products of Chicago’s alleys, as they confidently awaited their future. THOUSANDS OF PETITIONS.

Bernard Grant, who was under sentence of death for the murder of • a policeman, was to have been executed on October 17, but Governor Lem Small granted a reprieve of 90 days until January 16, 1925. ' A petition asking pardon or commutation of sentence for Grant was received at the Governor’s Office on the same day that the reprieve, was allowed, and it was referred to the State Department of Public iVelfare. -. A petition.was sighed by his two .lawyers. Other petitions bearing thousands of names of persons who had eithey interested themselves in Grant following the decision of the! Leopold-Loeb case, which gave “Babe” and “Dickie” life sentences because they were not of age, followed: shortly after. The appeal for pardon or commutation of death sentence was based on the allegation that new evidence tending Ao clear Grant of the crime had been brought out since his trial and the upholding Of his conviction by the Illinois Supreme Court. ; ..

Societies for the abolition of capital punishment are springing up in various parts of the United States, hut little is heard of the thousands of victims of lawlessness in America. The soealled “sob-sisters” are busy filling the columns of the daily press. with sentimental gush pleadiiig the lives- of convicted murderers, trying to create public sympthy; . On the other .hand, • hold-ups are being staged daily iii greater numbers, and murders are be-, coming mote frequent, especially inChicago, the’ scene of the Franks tragedy. The “thrill stuff” expounded: by “yellow” sheets undoubtedly has had its effect on the spineless, youngsters of the country. In some of the daily newspapers theories are being advanced that SO per cent of the de-' linquency which occurs nowadays in America is the result of parental neglect. LAWLESSNESS. Emphasis is being given to a recent utterance of Judge Alfred/ J. Talley of the Court of General Sessions in New York. He declared that the United States is suffering under an indictment which proclaims it the ihost lawless country in the world. Addressing a jurist whom he was inducting to . office he said : “You will find that* the United States , must plead guilty to the indictment. = Most of the desperate criminals are mere beys; YoU will, he heart-broken at discovering that the vast majority of defendants ate Under 19 or 20 years old. That is going to be your most distressing problem.” x . In ah article iii the, New York Herald-YribUhe, the judge asserted that, oh a conservative estimate, there ate at least 10,000. murder cases in a year in the United States. The upward trend in the murder record , is. attracting the attention of the principal life insurance companies. A bulletin of the Metropolitan Life states that the homicide rate in the. United States is about 12 times as high as in England. Mr Hoffman, statistician' of - the- .Prudential" Company, analyses the murders in 28 large citie's, and declares that the result hi the most amazing record for any civil-; ised country for which the data sfe' available.. England and Wales in had 200 deaths from homicide, a.s against about 10,000 in the Unite'd States. Making allowance for thq' greater population, the difference is startling. The homicide mortality .is more than 14 times as great in, the United States as in Ontario andf Quebec —the most populous pnmooes in Canada. Judge Talley does rot believe that the fault lies in lax enforcement of the law. He blames the people for their apathy in regard to punishing criminals, and for unwillingness to obey the law and to train their children in obedience and respect for lawful constituted authority. He finds that jurymen flout the law, t- nd render verdicts in wanton disregard of the facts. The report of the American Bar Association in 1923 is being ’-rioted, showing that during 1921 there were 260 murders in New York City and 137 in Chicago, whilst throughout all England and Wales in 1921 there were hut 63 murders. American lawmakers and sobsisters have been asked to ponder over these statistics, esoeci-uly in view of their attitude in endeavouring. to secure a repeal of the law prescribing the death penalty.