The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-13
CRIMINAL JuRIsPRUDENcE AND vIGI'
LANCE COMMITTEES.

Judge Sutherland, of the Supreme Court OF
New York city, has set vicious precedent.
He has admitted certain persons charged with
willfu murder by coroner's jury to bail, the
bail having been applied for on the ground
that the coroner refused the right OF cross
examining witnesses to the prisoners and their
counsel, and that in his charge to the jury ne
had assumed the guilt of the prisoners. This
is one of many indications of the bad theory
and the worse practice that are growing
apace in the criminal Judiciary of the country.
The whole system of criminal inquest and
prosecution must break down if the initiatory
proceedings are to be contradictory con-
Quoted, and to give the accused the bene-
fit of the same presumption of innocence
which has existed in his favor, by the con-
cession of both law and public opinion, when
put upon his trial. Before the coroner, or
any other committing magistrate, the &C
cused does not undergo trial. He is simply
the subject of an investigation based on the
hypothesis Of his guilt. Without such an n.y.
pothesis distinctly applied to some one there
could be no arrest, no intelligent inquest, no
Unsuitable commitment. In short, at this
stage of criminal procedure the presumption
of guilt, as a fundamental principle, must lie
against the accused, in order to ensure the
punishment of crime, just as at the final stage
the presumption of innocence, as fundamen-
tai principle, must lie in his favor, in order that
the penalty of the law may not by possi-
bility, fall upon any but the really guilty.
If the plea Endorsed by Judge Sutherland
should prevail, there could be no hypothesis
of guilt, to begin with, directed against any
known person. Consequently, no committing
magistrate would be authorized to hold any
body under arrest single moment, upon the
gravest charge in the criminal catalogue,
unless the charge were already established
beyond the chance of defensive refutation. In
short, accusation would have to be synony-
nous with conviction, and arrest and commit
ment would constitute the first step towards
execution. few very stupid or very &C.
centric criminals might be so accommodating
as not TO avail themselves of the morbid ten
derness of the law, by going beyond reach of
capture while loose, unofficial, unformulated
suspicion was slowly weaving a web of proof
which should proclaim the positive certainty
of their guilt But it is safe to assume that
the most inveterate, ingenious, enterprising
and dangerous class of criminals would never
undergo either prosecution or punishment.
The only way by which these may be pre-
vented from eluding the grip of justice is to
bag them in the first instance; and this ex-
pedient is available only when the COM
hitting magistrate is authorized to pro-
coed upon the presumption of guilt and
to decide upon ca pdrte evidence. By the con-
trary rule, criminal jurisprudence, as practi-
cal system, would have its bottom knocked
out. 1t is too well known that the difficult
ties legal and social, of arriving at the Judicial
conviction and punishment of malefactors the
most fragrant, atrocious and pernicious, have
increased until they amount to one of the
most stupendous and shameful evils of the
time. This is why there is more and more
talk among the people of taking the law into
their own hands. Nor is this talk peculiar to
new, rude or thinly inhabited districts where
circumstances are unfavorable to prompttude
and efficiency in tie legal administration of
criminal Justice. Even in New York the for
nation of vigilance committee as the only
means of purging the city of its frightful
accumulation of criminality, Is fami-
liar suggestion on the lips of honest,
respectable and intelligent citizens. A
large portion Of Southern Indiana, one
of the Oldest settlements in the West, To-
cality almost in the very heart Of the Union,
is at this moment under the jurisdiction of a
vigilance committee, who seize and execute
malefactors both before and after their legal
arrest, assuming as the warrant for this swift
and irregular procedure that courts of law are
in effect a conspiracy against justice, an Or
ganization to rescue criminals and distress
society. Now, suppose that the chances OF
bringing accused and suspected persons to
final trial before any kind of legal tribunal
should be reduced as nearly to nihility as
Judge Sutherland's opinion would reduce
them, it would be vain to look any longer to
the law for protection against crime. People
would have no other alternative but to sur.
render themselves to the mercy Of licensed
criminality in allsits Investigations, or to re-
sort, for much better reason, to the Indians
method for purging society of its noxioui
elements.