JURORS' QUALIFICATIONS.
Mr. Boone, from the Judiciary Committee, returned Mr. Brown's bill [S, 107] in relation to the qualifications of jurors, recommending its indefinite postponement.
Mr. Brown said that this bill had been placed in his hands by Gov. Baker last session, and he regarded it as a very good bill. It provides that no person shall be disqualified from acting as a juror on account of his opinions as to capital punishment. One class of persons believe that what God has given to man no man has the right to take away; and there is another class who believe in the old Mosaic doctrine that he who sheds man's blood his blood shall be shed in return. There should be in the courts no inquiry upon this subject. This is a question of no trivial importance, and he was surprised that the Judiciary Committee should propose to dispose of this bill in so summary a manner. He moved that the report be amended so as to lay the bill on the table.
Mr. Boone favored concurring in the report of the Committee, for he thought the object of the bill was to do away with capital punishment entirely. This benevolent feature of the law has added to crime in this country, and nothing tends so to prevent high crime as the knowledge that severe punishment awaits it.
Mr. Orr could not endorse the doctrine advanced by the Senator from Jackson, (Mr. Brown) but would vote for the motion because it is hard treatment to indefinitely postpone a bill.
Mr. Brown disavowed that there is anything in the bill proposing to abolish capital punishment, but it makes the practice in the criminal court in accord with the humane statute allowing imprisonment for life in high criminal cases.
The motion to amend the report was agreed to.
So The report lays on the table.
