The Home Secretary, if he had been allowed by the
rules to discuss the case of Jacoby in the House of -Commons, might have said that no question of Jacoby's irresponsibility having reached the point of insanity was raised at the trial and that therefore -he could not intervene. That would be formally a strong line of defence, but nevertheless the painful contrast remains. We write of loth these cases as convinced believers in the necessity of capital punishment—convinced not because we entertain the futile idea of taking revenge upon murderers, but because we believe that capital punishment (1) succeeds in setting murder apart from all other crimes and in distinguishing it as the most anti-social of all mimes; (2) is a deterrent, since the fear of it frequently thrusts people of wavering .mind back from-the brink of the precipice; and (3) is a general protection to the community, who cannot be regularly provided with any particular safeguards against. theatttaoks of murderers.
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