Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 181, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1911 — MURDER INDICTMENTS. [ARTICLE]

MURDER INDICTMENTS.

A temple es the Idiotic Style In Which They Are Written. Harder ba» been written of as a fine ait. but it remained for the United State* to treat it as a sport. In many of the states sn indictment for murder contains nearly enough words to fill a column and sounds like the conversation of an idiot Here is a samPig; . " '’ “That the said J. F. G.. a certain pistol then and there charged with gunpowder and leaden bullets, which said pistol he, the said J. F. G., then and there In his rlgbt hand had and held, then and there unlawfully, purposely and of deliberate and premeditated malice, did discharge and shoot off to. against and upon the said F. M.. with the Intent aforesaid, and tbat the said J. F. G.. with the leaden bullets aforesaid, out of the pistol aforesaid. by the force of the gunpowder aforesaid, by the said J. F. G.. then and there discharged and shot off as aforesaid, him. the said F. M„ in and upon the upper right side of the beck of him. the said F. M.. then and there’’-

Thls isn’t as idiotic as It looks, however. It Is part of our sporting theory of justice, which makes a murder trial s game of skill and finesse between , opposing counsel. By the slightest deviation from statutory form one side may lose the game. Convictions for the most abhorrent crimes have repeatedly been set aside because of trivial verbal omissions In tbe indictment.

Had the murder referred to In the above quotation occurred In Canada tbe Indictment woul<F have read simply: “The jurors of our lord the king present that J. F. G. on the 6tb day of August, one thousand nine hundred and eight, at tbe city of Winnipeg, in tbe province of Manitoba, murdered F. M.” Canadian procedure concerns Itself with the murder. Oars in many jurisdictions concerns itself with the legal sport, whether tbe murderer is punished or lot being a secondary consideration.—Saturday Evening Post.