Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 35, number 4, summer, 1952

              the case of john mccaffary1 by carrie cropley this gruesome tale the murder at kenosha of bridget mccaffary by her husband in the summer of 1850 re sulted in the abolition of the death penalty for first degree murder in the state of wisconsin it was replaced by imprisonment in the state prison dur ing the life of the person so convicted it was approved by the governor on july 12 1853 i 66 he that smite th a man so that he shall die shall surely be put to death since the dawn of history men with power or authority have set themselves up as arbi ters of the life or death of their fellowman in accordance with certain standards of right and wrong family or tribal feuds and regulations superstitious fear of the after math of breaking of local or national taboos decisions in conformity to certain legal stand ards may be the controlling motive un doubtedly murder was always the number one cause but there were many other crimes and misdemeanors which also brought the death penalty the old hebrew law named at least eight during the middle ages and later in europe life was cheap in comparison with property even today the mere failure to think and speak according to sovereign edict puts human life in jeopardy in large sections of the world in our own country some of those old standards held sway in the earlier years happily there has been a narrowing list of offenses punishable by death until at present murder in certain degree or treason in time of war are the only ones that may bring death wisconsin is now one of five states where capital punishment is outlawed the others are michigan minnesota maine and south dakota in rhode island a convicted mur 1the name had a number of spellings in various records mcaffrey mccaftery mccaffary etc the one used in most of the court records and governor's warrant was mccaffary derer may be executed if after conviction he kills a guard.2 wisconsin had a twin heritage in its opposition to this practice new york whence came many of the first settlers abolished public hanging in 1835 with a society working for total abolition as early as 1844 michigan of which wisconsin had been a part forbade capital punishment in 1847 during the period that wisconsin was a part of michigan territory several murder trials occurred in which the crime had been committed in this area some of these were indian cases a noted one in 1823 was tried before judge james d doty in crawford county and resulted in a conviction but before the execution date it was found that the sheriff was not qualified and the case was referred to the president of the united states who pardoned the indians on novem ber 3 1828 3 four executions for murder occurred between 1832 and 1834 one of these was at mineral point where judge charles dunn imposed the death sentence another involved an indian who was tried on the stockbridge reservation under the laws of the stockbridge indians;4 a third instance occurred at green bay where a soldier had shot an officer and a fourth case implicated an indian who had killed an officer of the united states army however the wisconsin frontier was far removed from united states officialdom where the lack of law and law enforcement and the need for protection from violence was felt this was evinced by a memorial to congress in january 1836 this called attention to the fact that it had been thrown off by michigan without an acting governor to enforce the fragments of laws under which its citizens lived and without a competent civil jurisdiction to give security to lives and property that 10,000 to 12,000 freemen encyclopedia americana chicago 1950 3"witherell's reminiscences wisconsin historical society collections 3:336 1904 and footnote stockbridge mission reports ibid 15 : 167 1900 281