----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Young" <ericvil(a)ix.netcom.com>
To: <CARSON-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 2:34 PM
Subject: RE: [CARSON] "Murdered" John Carson and his wife Ann Baker
> John CARSON, born 1777, died 29 JAN 1816
> Richard Smith was executed August 10, 1816 at Philadelphia for shooting
John Carson.
It took 7.5 months, eh?
Well, six and a half, but who's counting? :-)
Actually, that was rather slow for the time and for long afterwards. In late
February, 1933, someone tried to assassinate President Elect Franklin
Roosevelt, the week before he was inaugurated. He missed FDR but killed the
Mayor of Chicago, who was riding in the open car (in Miami) with him. The
assassin was hanged in April, 1933, less than two months later. As late as
1961, when Caryl Chessman (if I remember the name correctly) was executed
after 11 years on death row, it was thought extraordinary and deplorable.
Now twenty years is not uncommon.
I'm agnostic about capital punishment, but clearly its deterrent value is
nil if one's life expectancy is not affected by receiving a death sentence,
which is often now the case.
JSG