The last refuge of the apologist is that punishment is inflicted to prevent crime. No one can speak from experience as to whether punishment prevents what is called crime or not, for the experiment of non-resistance has never yet been fairly or fully tried. To justify killing or penning a human being upon the theory that this prevents crime should call for the strictest proof on the part of those who advocate this course. To take the life or liberty of a fellow man is the most serious responsibility that can devolve upon an individual or community. The theory that punishment is a preventive to unlawful acts does not seriously mean that it is administered to prevent the individual from committing a second or a third unlawful act. If this were the case the death penalty should never be inflicted, as life imprisonment accomplishes the same results. Neither would it be necessary to restrain men in the way that is done in our penal institutions, to deprive them of all pleasure and the income of their labor. All that would then be needed would be to keep men safely locked from the world. But most unlawful acts are committed hastily in the heat of passion or upon what seems adequate provocation, or through sore need. Such acts as these would almost never be repeated. Genuine repentance follows most really vicious acts, but repentance, however genuine, gives no waiver of punishment. Then, too, many men who commit no act in violation of the law are known to be more likely to commit such acts than others who through some circumstances may have violated a criminal statute. Men of hasty temper, of strong will, of intemperate habits, often with no means of support, all of these are more liable to crime than one who has once overstepped the bounds. But it is obvious that this is not the real reason for punishment; if it were it would be the duty of judge and jury to determine, not whether a man had committed a crime, but whether he was liable to commit one at some future time, an inquiry which is never made and which it is obvious could not be made. * * * * *