Speeches delivered by Pat M. Neff, Governor of Texas, discussing certain phases of contemplated legislation Page: 40 of 61

                                
-40SHOULD
NOT MAKE HEROES OF CRIMINALS.
The law-abiding people of Texas have the right to expect protection
from  the lawless element of society. They should not be forced to
bend their knees to criminals. The trend of legislation in this State
for years has been to make for the criminal a primrose path. Laws
should be enacted to protect the innocent rather than the guilty. Not
only have the Legislature and the courts of this country failed to function
for the protection of the law-abiding, but there is among us a
large class of mush-headed, faint-hearted, sentimentalists who, when
criminals are caught red-handed and while their fingers are still
dripping with human blood, greet them as heroes and heroines. The
maudlin mania and sickening sentiment both in and out the jury box,
that loses sight of truth and justice and right and makes a hero out
of every person who commits a crime is eclipsing the bright light of
that resplendent star on the American flag that emblems forth the
grandeur and glory of Texas.
FINE EXAMPLE OF CRIMINAL HERO-WORSHIP.
No finer example can be had of criminal hero-worship than when
a few months ago seven thousand one hundred and twenty-eight persons
in Bell County signed a petition that I either pardon or commute
the death sentence adjudged by court and jury against one George
Hornsby. Hornsby was a man 29 years of age, a deserter from the
American army, went under an assumed name to avoid identity, a transient
fellow without vocation, lived with a woman not his wife on a
negro street in Brownwood, and for the purpose of robbery, murdered, if
human testimony is to be believed, one of the substantial citizens of
Brown County. That he might have an impartial trial, removed from
local influence, the case was sent to Bell County. The jury assessed
the death penalty, and from the evidence as I found it to be, any
other verdict would have been a travesty on justice. No sooner was
the verdict of guilty rendered than there was begun by men and women,
among them the very best citizens of Bell County and the equal of
those of any other county, a campaign closely resembling hero-worship
of the convicted murderer. Eighty per cent of the voting strength
of Bell County protested to me against the punishment assessed against
him. Reports stated that admiring hands brought to his cell the delicacies
of life, flowers were strewn for him to walk on to the scaffold
and fair women coveted the privilege of holding his hands while the
black cap was being adjusted. By public contributions a costly casket
was purchased and flowers were piled high above his grave, even as the
grave of one who had fallen in defense of his country. The murderer
was praised as a hero and the Governor who refused to set aside the
verdict of the jury, the verdict of the district court and the verdict of
the Court of Appeals, all declaring him guilty, was held up to scorn
and ridicule.
THE COURTHOUSE.
To these more than seven thousand petitioners I made no apology
iten and I make none now. In the administration of the law, I am