Thursday, September 10, 1925
SENTENCED BY JUDGE – MORAL POINTS
Judge Jake Fisher sentenced two men to life imprisonment the other day. This same thing has been done before in many other courts and the prisoners have gone on to their long, drawn-out fate behind the penitentiary walls and those who knew them or know of their cases, long since, have forgotten them.
In passing this sentence, Judge Fisher said several things to the two colored men before him, which are worthy of wider circulation than the utterance in the courtroom might give them. The pair had confessed to killing another colored man. The judge pointed out to them that juries are honest if, unfortunately, sometimes timid. He said:
“We recently heard in our court from a specialist an opinion that any atrocious crime was committed under conditions of mental restraint, a theory at variance with all law. But I attribute the fact of timidity on the part of juries to a sort of epidemic of fear of reasonable doubt, or of the fear of violating some right presumed by the law to exist in favor of one charged with a crime. Defenses often and ably stressed in cases where criminals find themselves pressed for a better defense. This timidity is the creature of the hour, and like all other epidemics will shortly disappear. But if it has had its influence; because for that I am reasonably sure your punishment would not have been different if the jury had tried you.
“The fight of the ages has been for the right of mankind to the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and of pursuing and obtaining happiness. The white race enjoyed these great rights long before those of your race came into possession of them. The great war that resulted in your freedom is vivid in the recollections of multitudes still living. Freedom with you has scarcely had time to become common place. And yet, in the possession of all your facilities, and in the enjoyment of what could and should have been delightful youth, you have deliberately thrown it away as though it were a worthless chattel. No one could have taken it away from you, because it was guaranteed to you by the indestructible organic law of the land. But it was a right that could be forfeited by you. It was yours only so long as you respected the similar rights of others to life, property and the pursuit of happiness. You could exercise it only as freemen; you forfeited it on pain of becoming the slave of the state.
“And henceforth, you are to be such slaves, if you live a century, you will have but commenced your sentence. At hard labor every day of your lives, you will but have commenced your work. You will be cut off from communication with the free and happy people of this good world through every day of your existence; and every night you live, you will seek repose for a tired body in a small gray cell of three feet by seven – scarcely larger than an ordinary grave vault. You will be shut up there with your conscience as your sole companion. Little wonder that life termers, in their efforts to compose their guilty conscience, in times, persuade themselves that they are innocent. Torture necessarily drives them to that.
“My parting advice to you is to be honest with yourselves. Make every effort within your power to atone for the innocent blood you have so unrighteously spilled.
“Such comfort of mind as you may have can come only as the act of Divine Providence, and I can give you no better advice than to implore you to seek it there with all the earnestness and diligence at your command.
“I have thought it well to say this much largely because your unfortunate example must be used to deter others from falling into an error such as yours. Human life must be made secure, and all those who contemplate its taking must know the consequences of it.
“Then, too, the contemplation of your plight should serve to remind us all of the real value of a freeman’s heritage. We may profit from your experience in renewed efforts to keep it.”
DIED
Mrs. Nancy A. Long, wife of Marat. A. Long, died at her home on the old Caldwell Road August 29, 1925. She was the mother of sixteen children, eleven of whom survive… The funeral was held from the Salem Church at Ronceverte. The church was crowded with relatives and friends and neighbors, who had come to pay their respect to this devoted wife, mother and friend. Her body was laid to rest in the cemetery nearby to await the resurrection.
