Five homicides are committed in North Carolina and two men are sent to the State prison each week to serve sentences for homicide, according to comparative figures covering 30 months from January 1, 1921, to June 3, 1923, secured by the News and Observer yesterday from the State prison and the State bureau of vital statistics.
During the 30 months, 612 people were killed in North Carolina, and 275 were brought to the State prison to serve sentences for various degrees of murder, ranging from one year for manslaughter to execution for first degree murder. Twelve were for murder in the first degree, 157 for murder in the second degree, and 110 for manslaughter.
During the year of 1921, 246 homicides were reported to the bureau of vita statistics, 105 people were punished by imprisonment or death for murder. In 1922, 253 people were killed and 99 were convicted and sentenced for murder. During the first six months of 1923, 113 people met death in homicides, and during the same period 77 men and women were committed to the prison for murder.
Over the 30 months’ period 941 men and women were committed to the prison to serve sentences for crime, 275 of whom were brought for murder, or abut 30 per cent of the convictions were for taking human life. The man killer has 56 chances out of a hundred of not being brought to prison when he has taken a human life, according to the figures of the bureau and the prison.
Homicide ranks right after typhoid fever in the causes for death reported to the bureau. In 1921 typhoid deaths totaled 307 and homicides 246. In 1922 typhoid killed 2989 and homicides accounted for 253. Disease decreased and crime increased. The comparative figures for the first six months of the current year are not available.
Homicide is defined by the State bureau as any death caused by another person, other than accidental killings. Included are all deaths in which a person is charged with the killing, whether known to the local registrar or not. Shooting is by far the most widely used method of killing. Cutting with knives and razors rank second and assault with automobiles is listed in some cases as homicide.
The figures are not absolutely parallel. Murder committed in 1921 may not be brought to court for a year, and the cases over-lap. But prison officials believe that the average would apply over a longer period of years for which figures might be available. Some few cases of manslaughter are punished with road sentences, but the vast majority of them are sent to the State prison.
August and December are the great murder months in the State, according to Dr. F.M. Register, director of the bureau. Prevalence of liquor drinking during the holidays is largely responsible for the number of killing in December, and the lull in agricultural activities in August, bringing leisure of congregation among the farm labor element, is responsible for the number of killings reported in August. –News & Observer.
From the front page of the Tri-City Daily Gazette, Leaksville, N.C., Dec. 20, 1923
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