One hundred years ago
MURDER is the great crime of the United States, as the following table, taken by the Times from the Chicago Tribune, sufficiently shows:–
Year Legal Murders Executions Lynchings 1884 3,377 103 219 1885 1,808 108 181 1886 1,499 83 133 1887 2,335 79 123 1888 2,184 87 144 1889 3,567 98 175 Total of six years 14,770 558 975 Murder, it will be seen, is only legally punished in one case out of twenty- eight. In the ten years ending 1888, there were 1,766 cases of wilful murder in England, or at least the Coroners so reported, and for these 672 persons were brought to trial, and only 373 acquitted or found insane. Taking our population roughly at half the Amer- ican, we should, on the American pre- cedent, have had 12,500 murders in the ten years, and only 460 executions. Of course, many hundreds of American murderers have suffered lesser penal- ties, but the enormous number of crimes committed shows that those penalties do not deter.
The Spectator, 15 March 1890
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