Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1889 — THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. [ARTICLE]

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

" . r :-f. Xocuts vto Ho Done if Civilization Is to Survive. * th* fhir,*?s nee,-.-: •yto he done to f • our c T . : 1)7 it it* . the that and most i : ) ■ at v) fo.-'i'i ea <• umdelechange <• m 'itie on tiie part ctf society toward *• Vv i is now the attitude ; J: ■ o.i ednor of indifi ■e, t«>! .1 or COUUIV PC, or f* . ' i-rge-.t-ive <*f v .•iv.-js of i !:• power t: -'idignatin and of evtrfy faculty t ■ ■ »i «or tii.* ic ression of crime. ar ; t crimimii the attitude of the puu.m is that ci wca.; pity, not muuin* f ■ at i dmi. i.< .. The . rirn.nal ia v ••iiurtn;;:uo ao, to Favu whom from ]•••'•< i Imcuit to be the chief end o. it- law. Li nk for a moment at his C liar. court of justice. The jury, i;.i i uiv selected for their ignorance, l. ado.judge, o; both law and fact; to convict they urns' bo unanimous; if v have a rensoya l" doubt of guilt, tic y nust acquit; they are tliemselve* to determine what is a respectable do a t; and to crown all, they are instructed that it is better that ten guilty men should escape than that one inno c> nt man sh uld be punished. These rules and maxims, devised centuries ago by merciful judges, then met the ends of justioe, since, as the laws were, as against the crown officers, seeking to convict, a person accused, had no chance of acquittal, for he was allowed neither counsel nor witnesses; but now they operate to screen the guilfy from punishment, save in a few cases where there is a general cry for vengeance against some atrocious offender. The maxim about the ten guilty men ia pressed upon juries by every felon’a lawyer as the great safeguard of private riguis. In truth, however, the interest of justice would be best subserved by making it read: “It is better that ten innocent men should suffer than that one guilty man should escape. ” Were that declared to be the policy of the law juries would be made to feel, not that the innocent were less deserving than before of acquittal, but that the guilty were a hundred times more deserving of conviction and punishment* And the result would be mo3t salutary. In not one case in a million could an innocent man suffer; and hardly one in a lAousand of the guilty, instead of three out of four, as now, would escape. How necessary such a change of attitude is, may be seen from the constant recurrence of voluntary movements of private citizens iut. .ded to supply the detects of the law. Because great criminals generally escape punishment, lyn ihing parties are of weekly occur* eno.i in our country. Citizens’associations have been found n cossary to seour * tho execution of ou»* municipal laws. From the announcements constantly apj v c.v.'ng ill tin: pubi.c journals that f#>m snob a day laws, long in for *O, but it.-, t unexecuted, would be rigidly enforced, one might infer that the duty of au executive officer is to cause the laws to be executed when lvs pkoaees to do so, or not at all if suet oo his will.— Judge Jam eaSi. m Nort' American .Uffview.