[ No. 15. ]

REPORT of the Committee on State Prison relative to the Criminal Jurisprudence, and to the State Prison. The committee on State Prison, to whom was referred so much of the Governor's message as relates to the criminal jurisprudence, and to the State Prison of our State, are fully sensible that there can be no subject within the province of legislation, of greater importance to the welfare of the State than this. Your committee also fully agree with the sentiment of the message as to the three great objects of the punishment of crime, to wit: "the reformation of the criminal, the example, with a view to deter others from its commission, and the safety of community; and also, "that vengeance, in an enlightened and christian land," is not one of these objects. And we feel proud that Michigan was among the first to abolish the retaliatory and barbarous code of blood for blood; and that twelve years or more have now passed, and the hands of our government have not been made red with the blood of legalized murder. We cannot persuade ourselves to believe that the mass of our community, and especially the more

enlightened, humane and christian portion, are prepared, or are desirous, to return to the old law, and re-erect in every county a gallows, and make hangmen of all our Sheriffs.

We are also firmly of the opinion, that certainty of punishment will do more to prevent the commission of crime than severity; and we think that there is a greater certainty of conviction and punishment without than with the death penalty, and that crime has not increased in consequence of the abolition of this penalty, as is charged by the friends of the gallows. On the contrary, there is satisfactory proof that the decrease of crime was the result. For eight years after its abolition, with an increase of population of more than one hundred thousand, a large proportion of whom were foreigners, miners, boatmen, pioneers, &c., who are inclined to violence and lawlessness, there was one murder less than in the preceding five years, with the gallows. The Governor, in his message, says that "crime in this State is more severely punished than in the State of New York, with the exception of the death penalty; and yet, with all this severity, we are fast outstripping New York in crime." If capital offences have increased in proportion to population, let us see if other offences, that are more severely punished, have not increased in a greater ratio. From 1839 to 1851, there were six hundred and twenty-six convicts sent to the State Prison in this State, of which number, seven were for murder. It will be borne in mind, that much the larger portion of this time the gallows was in full operation, and of the precise number of its victims your committee are not informed.

In 1852 there were sent to the State Prison 87, two of whom were for murder.

In 1854 there were sent to the State Prison 103, four of whom were for murder.

In 1856 there were sent to the State Prison 168, four of whom were for murder.

In 1857 there were sent to the State Prison 136, three of whom were for murder.

In 1858 there were sent to the State Prison 195, five of whom were for murder.

The above statistics show conclusively that the amelioration and not the severity of punishment tends to the decrease of crime. And your committee verily believe that most of the murders that have been committed since the death penalty was rescinded, were committed in utter ignorance of that fact, but with the supposition that the old law was in force, and that a large portion of those that have been convicted for capital offences would have gone clear had the penalty been death. Here, then, is sufficient reason, even if we had no other, why there should be no return and no retrograde step towards the barbarous code of other days. But there are many other reasons that might be given if necessary. One is that the power over human life is the sole prerogative of Him who gave it. "Human laws, therefore, rise in rebellion against this prerogative when they transfer it to other hands."—(Dr. Benjamin Rush.) Another reason is the fact that the penalty of death fosters and inculcates a false moral principle, infuses a dangerous retaliatory spirit into the public heart, and tends to the perpetration of crime. Let the laws hold human life sacred and individuals will; but let the law say that under certain circumstances human life may be taken and individuals will avail themselves of the same privilege. Hence Dr. Livingston has said that every execution brings an additional candidate for the hangman. And yet another reason, and a most cogent reason it is, that innocent men have been and would be liable still to be execu ted. There are such cases on record almost without number. During the last century, in England alone, according to the history of her criminal jurisprudence, a hundred and fifty innocent men were executed. Nor is the history of our own country wanting in facts of a like melancholy

character. Hence it was that Edward Livingston said, "This objection alone, did no other cogent reasons exist, this alone would make me hail the decree for its abolition as an event so honorable to my country and so consoling to humanity, as to be cheaply purchased by the labor of a life." It was for this reason, too, that Lafayette declared that he should ask for the abolition of capital punishment until the infallibility of human judgment should be demonstrated to him.

For the reasons above noticed, and many others that might be given, your committee, so far from recommending the retrogressive step of returning to the old and sanguinary law of life for life, would, on the contrary, recommend that the penalty of the law, as it now exists, should be considerably mitigated and ameliorated. In appointing penalties to our laws, we ought ever to keep in view the great objects of punishment, which is the safety and welfare of community, and the reformation of the criminal. And, surely, the former of these is no better secured, and the latter not at all accomplished, by so confining and punishing criminals as to make gibbering idiots or raving maniacs of them, and to speedily destroy their lives. God lets His sun shine on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and the unjust. Let us, in all acts and laws, incorporate the principle of love to our neighbor, of equal and exact justice to all, tempered with mercy.

Your committee would, therefore, recommend that, while the criminal should be made secure, and his punishment certain, yet that even the worst criminal be not condemned to constant, solitary and dismal confinement in a cell; hut that he shall have labor for his hands, and kindness and instruction for his heart and head, and the pure air of heaven to breathe. This would be more in accordance with the requirements of mercy, and not sacrifice, and, as your committee humbly believe, will better secure the objects of punishment.