New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-03-11
,nD,c,lpV REr0RM INCOMPLETE.

u
Something over year ago the Legislature
was induced, by strong public sentiment
aroused by exposures of judicial corruption
prevailing in this city, made principally IN this
journal, to send Committee to investigate
the facts. The result is matter of history;
the fruits of the reform which followed are
enjoyed to-day. 1t was found that three OF
the judges of the higher courts were unques-
tionably corrupt, and they suffered as they
deserved. 1t was found that tho Refer
ence system had been prostituted to the
service of half dozen half-hedged
lawyers who shared the proceeds of their
illegal and extOrtiOnate charges with the
Judges who Endorsed the bills, and without
whose approval they could not have
been paid and that the system had
thus been made a means of injustice
and robbery. 1t was discovered that injunc-
tons were for sale to the highest bidders or
given as favors are to the nearest friends,
who reciprOcated in presents of money or
furniture. Men were deprived of personal
liberty only that some friend of the com
hitting Judge might make round fee in
securing habeos corpus and release. II
was a common practice for judges, even in
cases involving life and death. not to mention
scores and hundreds of other serious State
Prison offenses, purpOsely to commit minor
technical blunders that "writs of error" might
follow. and Justice thus be cheated by pro-
cess too intricate to be detected by other than
legal mind All these things have not been
fully reformed, perhaps but everybody is sat
isfed that the reform in the higher courts has
H., hat
and fearless Press and an energetic and jeal-
GUS Bar may keep them purified as at pres
ent, if not, indeed, redeem them altogether.
Late developments have shown that the
courts themselves are little tempered with !;
the last resort of rOgues seems to DO by cor
ruptOn of the juries.
So much for last years work. What further
reform in the courts will the Legislature grant
us this year, The work is by no means fin
ished; it cannot be as long as the old Ring
survives in the police courts. The practice, the
personnel. and the organization of these courts,
are altogether wrong, defective. and destruc-
tive. little curtailed, possibly, the traffic in
the habeas corpus goes on there as ever.
"Wrts of error" are the main stock in trade
of half dozen of the lawyers in full prac-
pleas based on blunders which there is every
reason to believe were made by design, their
business would be dull indeed. Political adj
herents of the presiding magistrates are dis
charged and the arresting policemen repri-
manded as openly and shameessy as ever,
for the justices cannot, if they would, deny their
masters. False pleas of guilt of minor Offenses
are daily accepted from notorious criminals, who
thus escape by brief service in the Penitentiary
long imprsonment in the State Prison, for
graver crimes which they have confessed.
Daily the justices listen to charges of the
police without sparing second to the
protests or the denials of the accused; and
men are committed for punishment-nOt for
trial-without having been heard in their own
defense. In some of these courts, justices with
out a knowledge of law, and familiar only
with the police service, dispose of cases at the
rate of one minute This will appear incred-
ible to magistrates of lesser cities, who have
some reverence left for justice, but it is less
than the whole truth; and the statements made
in detail elsewhere of the rapid grinding of
the Judiciary mill a" in this city are not exag-
gerated. o
Let us have from the Legislature thorough
reform of these courts and we may then hope
for justice here. The road to this reform is
shorter than that which brought us relief in
the Supreme and Superior Courts. There is
pending at Albany bill which has this very
object in view. 1t has the approval of all
criminal lawyers of repute who practice in
these courts; it was drawn by men who know
the extent of the corruption existing and who
we believe labor disinterestedly for this re-
form. The bill has been favOrably reported;
let it be called up and disposed of at once.
Meantime, for their information as to the mis-
carriage of justice in these courts and the
pressing need of their reform. we refer legis-
lators to the article printed elsewhere, in
which it is told. from actual experience, how
innocent men are punished and confessed
criminals go unwhipped of justice.