Remember Floyd Marion Root? He's the 15-year-old who was sentenced for life by Judge Sam M. Thompson of Cheyenne. He wasn't tried. He was judicially lynched.

I wrote at the time of that frightful sentence, and I still potently believe, that the people of Wyoming will not allow a child to be so abused, will not permit him to be deprived of his constitutional rights and then sent up for life. I wrote at the time, and still potently believe, that Gov. Nels Smith cannot sleep well these nights because of that child locked up in the State Industries Institute at Worland until he reaches the age of 31, when, if the court order stands, he will be sent to the State Prison for the rest of his life.

Some hundreds of letters convince me that the people of Wyoming are outraged by Judge Thompson's brutality and are determined that this disgrace to the state be wiped out.

Public opinion is mounting. Public opinion will be strongly behind Governor Smith when he rights this wrong.

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What of the bar? Members of the bar are expected to lead in the formation of sound public opinion. They are educated, at least to the extent of holding degrees. People look up to them. They are supposed to know something about law and about justice, too.

The atrocity perpetrated against young Root was considered recently by the Laramie County Bar Association, meeting at Cheyenne. It adopted a resolution presented by a committee composed of C.R. Ellery, W.E. Mullen, J.A. Greenwood, C.A. Wanson, Ray E. Lee and Richard J. Jackson.

Here is the text:

"Be It Resolved by the Laramie County Bar Association in meeting assembled at Cheyenne this 25th day of March, 1942, that the members of the association feel that the judgment and sentence and commitment of the defendant Floyd Root in the case of the State of Wyoming vs. Floyd Root, was fully in accord with the general interpretation by the judiciary throughout the State of Wyoming of the situation applicable to such cases, and that the attack recently made in a Denver, Colo., newspaper on Judge Thompson of the First Judicial District of Wyoming on account of the judgment and sentence imposed by said judge upon the defendant, Floyd Root, was an entirely unwarranted and unjustified attack."

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That resolution might be a worthy entry in a contest for the long-distance-sentence-construction championship. Aside from that, it is worthless, because it answers none of the specific charges made in this column.

Judge Thompson followed the proper procedure, say members of the Laramie County Bar.

Their notions of proper procedures are, then, very strange.

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The boy was condemned - and condemned for life - without being given any of the protection that the Constitution, state, as well as federal, guarantees to an adult offender, as well as to a child.

He was held on a faulty complaint. In the direct information, the complaining witness was not even named. He was accused of assaulting "a female person." That is about the same as condemning someone - in this instance, a child - for murder without naming the corpse.

He was not allowed an attorney. True, under pressure, the boy said he wanted none. (If that resolution is indicative of the legal knowledge of all the Cheyenne bar, he may have been right.) But any self-respecting judge, any decent judge, is especially careful in cases involving children. Counsel should have been given that boy whether he asked for an attorney or not. Any lawyer or any judge who is not a part of that Laramie County political ring will tell you the same thing.

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As for Judge Thompson's plea that the law made him do it - a plea echoed by the Laramie County Bar - that's bogus, too.

Wyoming laws are not vicious. Wyoming judges sometimes are.

Back in February, 1936, two rapists, both grown men, stood before Judge Thompson. He sentenced each to one and one-half years.

Does the Laramie County Bar Association pretend that Judge Thompson can exercise such discretion in cases of grown men, and then is compelled to be so brutally severe in the case of a child?

They know better. So does Judge Thompson. That boy was denied a fair trial and was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. Until that wrong is righted, the District Court of Cheyenne stands in public disgrace.