When Jurors Won't Convict, Life Becomes Cheap, 1913

From the Asheville Citizen, January, 1913

Need we wonder that human live has become so cheap in North Carolina that men do not hesitate to shoot down fathers and mothers in the presence of their children, when slayer after slayer is acquitted by maudlin jurors too easily gulled by the claim of self-defense, thin and shallow in in many cases? 

What are we coming to?

The last two years in this state, and we do not overlook our own immediate section, have presented the acquittal of one manslayer after another, and in the face of these facts we have come to the conclusion that it is a greater felony to sell whiskey than to take human life, and that the latter crime is attended with far less risk of punishment. The “tiger” invariably goes to the roads while the manslayer is too often acquitted.

We need not go into details and recall the long list of slayers who are walking abroad on the streets of North Carolina today with the mark of Cain on their brows and the absolution of juries in their hearts; they are known to all who read and hear and it is not a list which reflects any credit on the state. Irresponsible and cowardly men, emboldened by the fact that they can carry deadly weapons without fear of punishment, shoot at will and take human life with the same sang froid that they would kill a fly. If you read the newspapers you must have noted that in several cases where man killers were acquitted they were not called upon to answer the charge of carrying concealed weapons. Why not? 

The law on this subject is plain and clear, and if enforced to the letter would save many from premature graves. It is this impunity with which men may carry revolvers that has bred and developed this wholesale slaughter of humanity, and it is time the legislature of North Carolina makes the carrying of concealed weapons a penitentiary offense. Other states have done so and if we are to retain our place in the scale of enlightened and intelligent people let us put a higher value on human life and make the possession of a manslayer’s weapon a felony. Under present conditions even bill collectors, secure in the knowledge of hidden guns, can walk into the unprotected homes of honest working men and shoot at will. Not even the presence of aged mothers and wailing infants can avert the muzzles of the murder’s gun.

Why is human life held so cheaply? Because, as we have stated, mushy and incompetent juries continue to turn man killers loose on helpless and shamed communities.