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Rheem A sas satel might be up against in @: video if the execution were carried out.. We “eve miost people join Senator Fulbright. chair _} of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in Yinding it “very disturb- ing” that American justice can be “pressured by incipient mobs of students in a small Latin Amer- ican country,” students whose prest umptuousness is probably equalled only by. their ignorance of the Chessman case, Is the status of American society so insecure, many people have lately asked themselves, as to be swerved from justice by considerations of its pubiic reiations effects? Are we so fearful of world opinion that.” ~deztep our own laws s? * Governor Brow: whose conscience. as an op- Ponent of capital punishment has been weighed down by the Chessman case, seemed only too eager to ‘have the State Department provide him with an excuse for stopping the march of lawful proc- esses. The Rubottom telegram’s intentions have, however, never been made clear. Was it or wasn ‘tit a White House request to keep the coast ¢! ear while the President was on tour? It seems to us that the Governor had no wer- rant whatever for repri ovin ng Chessman to allow a résub: migsio 1 Of the capital punishment issue to the Legislature, and that ‘$0 far as the State Depart- ment te? “a am goes, he should have issued merely a brief, 24-hour reprieve in order to find out if the telegram ‘expressed a genuine . presic sont al desire for a halt of the execution, . As things stand, the issue is in confusion, the processes of taw in Death Row are at a standstill, and many cHizens feel acutely embarrassed af the pass of affairs. That Chess:nan himself, his attor: nevs and the more "deter rmined opponents of capi: tal punishment, among whom is Governor Brown, do not share this concera does not lessen its acute: Chessman has becn given every opporlinity to pursue the due process of law; he has success fully carmed on a delaying action for 11 ye Some think this a burlesq que of justice; others con- der an ev idence of how scrupulous our sys am is to give the individual his due. But if it is “ers ne and unusual” process, it could have been made less cruel and unusual at any time by the execution of the defendant, Presumably he is safis- tt o Fes fied fo have his 11 years strung oul by another. 60 d Gays. i And what now? How does the Governor get A sift ale on * that will exist after the Legis- é decline < Ro doudt it will, to abotis . CaP Vill he enforce the law of the ind 2 now has sis for rept eve? a is ¢ capital punishment’s i 2 for a vote of the s fo avoid further ' ‘ peed anit ann alia, rd tbl ay staid pensar ane nt Ce i te Tene wad Nl an Do +h pe wa cee ee s N interpret tation of | en a vote of the wee PPE Et Se RES a) Ser Coe ee ee eed tise