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The Charge Of Judge Davis At The

The Charge Of Judge Davis At The image
Parent Issue
Day
11
Month
July
Year
1873
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

conclusión of the recent trial of young Walwokth, defining tho several degrees of murder as based upon or growing out of the legislation which took effect but two days before the commissiou of the offeuse for which the prisoner was on trial, elicits considerable eommeut It is. pcrhiips, regarded as, at least tuehnically, a correct exposition of the legisia tion referred to ; bu it none tho less expones the fact that a New York legislature can do ita work as negligently, loosely and bunglingly as the legislatura of the newer States or pven Congress. It is also conceded that, Judgo Davis being correct in delining murder in the first degree, STOKES and others, now held for trial, will assuredly escape conviction and save their necks, ind that hanging in New York is as effectually " a relio" as if capital punishmeut had been abolished in set tertns. Judge Davis held that the language of the new statute, " when perpetrated in tentionally, but without deliberation and premeditation," made it necessary to show " premeditution" Ante-dHting the iramediate collision out of which or during which caine the killing, or applied to tho case of Walwouth, the prosecution must show that he went from Saratoga to New York and sought the meeting with his father with the design to kil] him. As persons contemplating or " preraeditating" murder do not Wow the trumpet, cali their friends together, and "declare their intentions," it is to be presumed that uot in óue case in a hundréd will a New York prostcuting oflicer be able to establish a case of premeditation or " murder in the first desree " A square and explicit abolition of capital punishment would have been more manlv, and smacked less " of the waj's that ai e dark and tricks that are vaiu," which do not seem to bo the exclusive ways and tricks of the "heathen Chinee." But a correspondent of the New York Evening Pont has discovered a vpry singular flaw or blunder in thonew legislution. The old law made killing murder in the first degree "when perpetrated in committing the crime of arson in the first degree" - design not being a necessary element, nor the absence of design. The new legislation says, " when perpetrated without any design to effect death, by a person engaged in the commission of acy felony." The Post correspondent suggests--and With much plausibility - that a person on trial charged with murder in the first degree (committed in the conimission of a felony, but without premeditation), eay in the procuring of an abortiOn, will find a valid defunse by setting up and proving " that while engaged in the commission of the felony he perpetrated the killing with a design to effect death," thus lowering the crime to murder in the second degree. The New York legisla ture shouid have conimittees on cominon sense and phraseology. Under the new salary law inembers o Congress are permitted to draw their salaries monthly - $625 per inonth - upon the certifícate of the Secretary or Clerk of the House to which they belong. As the members of the Forty-third Congress came into the enjoyment of office on tht fourth day of March last, though they will not take the oath of office and ent-T on duty until the first Monday of December next, they can draw nine montbs pay, or the snug little sum of $ö,62ü each before doing a day's work for thegovernment. And word comes up i' rom Washington that they are making haste to do thisthing, with the same regularity tliat the toper of tho old school took his duily morning llowance of the decoction o) tansy and corn juice. And we fuil to seo any return to ba inada to the public provided the honorable members - one or more of them - shall take it into their heads to die on or before tho aforesaid first Monday in December, having drawn and converted, one, three, five or uine months' salary before earning a yune. One, Mr. Whiting, of Huss , has aïready "sbufflud off this mortal coil," whichactoi' Lis has servedto cali attention to the shrewdness with which Congrcss has imita ted the fabled petty jury in first fluding a verdict for itself. The story of the hunter and the Iridian who killed the turkey and the buzzard is also in point. Every reader knowa that the hunter proposed- to the Indian, " 111 take the turkey and you take the buzzard, or you take the buzzard and I'll take the turkey," and that the Indian exclaimed, with a significant grunt, " Ugh ! you no talk turkey to Injun a bit." And so Congress bas dividod with the public : increased salary, monthly installruents, and all unearned. What n blessed privilege it is to pay taxes to support such law-makers ! - Sincü the above was in type we notice an article in the Detroit Free Press discussing the same subject, in which i is Btated that Mr. Wiiiting's successor though he will not be elected unüj No vember, will bo entitled to draw paj from the day Mr. Wiiiting died, June 29th, which is double-action-back-pay Who would n't be a Congressinan 't especially if loil and hungry. The direotors of the St Joseph Mo ., Industrial Exposition, which is to open on the 29th of September, have issued a circular " to the press," soliciting a copy of every uewspaper published in the United States. The papers rcceived in response to the circular are to be neatly bound by states and placed on exhibition at the exposition until the fourth day, When the several volumes will bo sold at aucticn to the highest bidder, " the proneeds to be donated to the fund for building a monument to the illustrious journalist and foaterer of the press, Houace Gkeeley, who did bo much to advance the interests of the great West." We commend the enterprise to our brethren of the press, and shall cheerfully address a copy of the Argus to Ei. FleisCUEIÍ, Seo. and Geu'l Supt., St. Joseph Industrial Exposition, St. Joseph, Mo. The coroner's jury sitting on the body of Judge Cooley, killed in the reeent duel near New ürleans, rendered a verdict of murdei against Gol. Ehett. The Suprema Court commenced its regular surnmer terra, at Lansing, on Tuesday last, with 53 cases on the calen" dar. It ia ven out that tbsrt will be uü b usiion on Haturdays or Mondaye.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus