Fourteen men now awaiting execution at the State prison, a burglar, three rapists and 10 murderers, may yet escape the ultimate vengeance in the law through the possibility of the abolition of the death penalty by the General Assembly which meets in January and the possibility that the Governor, in view of the first mentioned possibility sets no date for their execution.
Every man in the crowded death house has an appeal pending before the Supreme Court, or an appeal that has been denied and no date fixed for execution, or a stay of sentence from the Governor. No executions are now scheduled until February 11th, when Joe Dixon, already reprieved three times, is again marked to pay with his life for burglary committed in New Bern earlier in the year.
Depends on Legislature
Much depends on the possibility that the General Assembly will abolish the death penalty, a possibility generally regarded as too remote to put in the category of the probabilities, but still regarded as a possibility; that, and what is taken as a reluctance on the part of the Governor to hasten the death of 14 men when legislative action may give them life within the next two months.
No recent session of the General Assembly has been without its bill to abolish capital punishment, but this time it appears to be coming up with a more imposing backing. The Committee of One Hundred on Prison Legislation, while not committed outwardly yet to the abolition of the penalty, is understood to be prepared to lend whatever weight it has toward repealing the Mosaic law.
Record Population
Not in the history of the death row at State Prison has it been so congested with doomed humanity as it is at present. Fourteen men under sentence, and four others there for safe keeping against violence at home who face the certainty of conviction for capital offences. By the time the General Assembly is in session it is believed that the death house will have a score of tenants.
Governor Morrison has showed no disposition to haste in sending men to their death. Several among the pallid tenants of the prison have been waiting since the Supreme Court denied their appeals last spring for him to fix a day for their execution. Among them Clyde Montgomery, charged with rape, whose appeal was denied last April. Others have been brought in from time to time to swell the hopeless array.
Busbee for Repeal
Eight men have died in the chair since Governor Morrison was inaugurated nearly two years ago. He has never committed himself to abolition of the death penalty. Warden S.J. Busbee, through whose hands the State inflicts death, would approve the removal of the penalty, provided assurance is written into the law that external influences cannot thereafter be brought to bear for further commutation of sentence.
Solitary confinement, beyond the reach of any human being save their keepers, in a prison that none might enter and none may leave, he things, would meet the ends of justice and give assurance to the State that punishment commensurate with the crime would be inflicted. Mr. Busbee is profoundly impressed with the sternness of death, and he cannot get away from the fact that when a man has killed a man justice should take equally stern measures.
The Row’s Directory
Public thinking on the death penalty has in no great measure crystallized. It will take the introduction of a repeal measure, and hard fighting to center the State on it. When it comes into the public mind, some measure of the public sentiment will be available. Meanwhile the 14 men wait in the death cells, and build hope on the possibility that legislation will intervene between them and death. The men in prison are; in the order of their committal:
Bob Benson, negro, Iredell county, murder. Appeal denied.
Graham White, negro, Mecklenburg, murder. Appeal denied.
Clyde P. Montgomery, white, New Hanover county, rape. Appeal denied.
Joe Dixon, Craven county, burglary. Reprieved until February 11, 1923.
Ed. Drew, negro, Beaufort county. Stay of execution granted.
Joe Bush, white, Caldwell county, murder. Appeal pending.
George Williams, Frank Dove, Willis Hardison, negroes, Onslow county, murder. Stay of execution granted Williams pending appeal of other three.
W.W. Campbell, white, Buncome county, murder. Appeal pending.
Eugene Gupton and Sidney Gupton, white, Edgecombe county, murder. Appeal pending.
James Williams, negro, New Hanover, rape. Appeal pending.
From the front page of The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., Monday morning, Dec. 11, 1922
No comments:
Post a Comment