Tradition Blotted

Few people disputed the noose-worthiness of Anthony Chebatoris, 40, sneering, hard-bitten little Pole of Hamtramck, Mich, who, with an accomplice, shot two officers of the Midland (Mich.) Chemical State Savings Bank, killed a passing truck driver, was captured thanks to the marksmanship of a deer-hunting dentist. Taking life during a bank holdup calls for the death penalty under Federal law.

But not since 1830, before Michigan became a State, had anyone been executed in Michigan./- Governor Frank Murphy thought trying to preserve that tradition would be a popular gesture. With Killer Chebatoris scheduled to hang at the Federal Detention Farm in Milan, Mich, last week. Governor Murphy appealed to President Roosevelt to have Chebatoris hanged in some other State.

Franklin Roosevelt asked his Department of Justice to see what could be done to accommodate gentle, faithful Frank Murphy. Federal law says that Federal executions shall be moved only out of States which have entirely abolished capital punishment. Michigan law does demand death for "high treason." The Chebatoris hanging could not be moved unless the trial judge knew of a way. Federal Judge Arthur J. Tuttle of Detroit replied: "I have neither the power nor the inclination. ... I think it would be unfair to suggest that people of neighboring States are less humane than are the people of our own. . . ."

So Executioner Phil Hanna of Illinois went to Milan. There last week, still sneering, Killer Chebatoris took the plunge that broke his neck. Obituary by Michigan's Murphy: "Michigan has led the world in the civilized attitude toward criminals. The hanging today was a blot on our century-old tradition, but I hope that it will have the effect of helping to abolish capital punishment from all the States in the Union."

/-When hulking, hard-drinking Stephen G. Simmons of what is now Wayne, Mich, was hanged in Detroit in 1830 for beating to death his invalid wife, Hangman Ben Woodworth made such a public spectacle of the affair that public aversion was aroused. Hanging Indians was one thing, hanging whites another. Eight years later, just across the border, Canada hanged a man subsequently proved innocent. Eight years after that, Michigan startled the world by declaring against capital punishment except for traitors.

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