LYNCH LAW, or JUDG,E LYNCH, a name for irregular punishment, especially capi tal, inflicted by private individuals independ ently of the legal authorities. Extra judicial punishments in states which are in a condition of loose organization have been common in all ages, as the Vehnqerichte in Germany, the Lydford law in England, "Jeddart in Scotland and the Spanish Hermonadad. The origin of the term "Lynch law" is doubtful; by some it is said to be from James Lynch Fitz-Stephen, warden of Galway, Ireland, who, about 1526, sentenced his son to death for mur der, and to prevent a rescue by a mob executed him with his own hands without due process of law. By others the term is said to have had its origin in the State of Virginia, where a farmer of the name of Charles Lynch (q.v.) took his own way of obtaining redress for a theft by catching the culprit, tying him to a tree and flogging him. This mode of admin istering justice has always prevailed more or less in every country in times of great popular excitement, and is necessarily resorted to in newly-settled territories, where the power of the civil government is not fully established. As early as 1768, in the United States the terms "regulating "regulation)) and "regulator' were in use in the Carolinas; illegal whippings were at that time inflicted by the Regulators, and it is claimed that a meeting of the Regu lators took place at Lynch's Creek. Whether there is any historical connection between the Regulators of the Carolinas and the Regulators who flourished along the Western frontiers where lynch law was well known, in and after 1819, is one of the many obscure points in the early history of lynch law which await elucida tion. At first in the United States, law' was not mob law, as it is now understood. It was almost necessary under the conditions then obtaining, when territory extended faster than effective government organization for the punishment of offenders. 't was orderly, methodical and fair in its practices, and was strongly opposed to violence or mob rule. Its distinctive feature was simply that its decrees and findings were executed sternly and swiftly on the spot where they had been decided upon. This was true of the conditions in California in 1849 when Judge Lynch held frequent court, and hundreds of culprits were executed be tween 1849 and 1860, in an orderly manner, with nothing of the mob violence or excite ment common in recent years. During the
Civil War and afterward, lynching was prac tised in the Southern States at the instigation of the Ku Klux Klan (q.v.). From 1870 it became an unwritten law in the South to lynch by mob rule every negro charged with rape or assault, or with the murder of a white per son; and it is still the Southern States that bear the unenviable record for lynchings. Grad ually this practice spread to Northern States, and negroes were not only °lynched," or hung, but were burned at the stake in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and other States. According to figures prepared by the Chicago Tribune, there were 3,539 lynchings in the United States be tween 1885 and 1912. About one-third of these were for violence to women, another third for murder, but none were for the killing of one negro by another. The number of lynchings vary considerably from year to year, as the following totals show : in 1906, 68; 1907, 71; 1912, 64; 1913, 79; 1914, 50; 1915, 96; 1916, 54. In the last-named year 50 negroes were lynched and four whites; less than a quarter of the punishments being inflicted for rape. Georgia headed the list of lynchings for 1916 with 14, Florida had 8 and Oklahoma 4.
Rarely is there conviction or punishment of persons who participated in lynchings, owing largely to the sympathy of jurors for the accused. In Kansas and Indiana laws have been passed providing for the suspension from office of sheriffs who fail to protect prisoners from the violence of the mob, and in South Carolina and Ohio the counties are held liable for compensation to the relatives of persons who suffer death by lynching. As the adminis tration of the criminal law is in the hands of the several States, the Federal government is unable to mitigate or stamp out the practice. The best remedy for lynch law is prompt ac tion by the courts and the prompt execution of sentence after a culprit has been convicted. Consult Calter, J. E., 'Lynch Law) (New York 1905) ; Hart, A. B.,