The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1874-01-07
CRIlIINAL COSTS AND TAXA
AT'TON


torneys General for a conference,
&c, together with my experience OF
the. grievous burden of taxes under
which our people groan, and my OBJ
seryation of the various causes which
now necessitate the imposition OF
such an onerous taxation, lead me to
propose a discussion of those causes
through the public press, in the hope
that some feasible plan may be sug-
gested whereby the tax payers of the
country may be relieved.
In order to draw out the opinions
Of others who may have bestowed
] some thought upon our financial
troubles and their remedy, propose
with your indulgence, to offer few
thoughts and suggestions, which, l
may here remark, are put forth with
dihidence. At present shall con-
fine myself almost exclusively to
stating my propositions and sugges-
tions without much effort at demon
stration ;. but, should my views, as /
shall advance them. find favor with
those who have thought, and may
think, upon the subject. l shall en-.
deayor to support my positions with
statistical data. and demonstrate the
feasibility of the remedies propose,
by contrasting the practical workings
of the system | condemn, with the
one l propose.
/ remark at the outset that | am
informed and believe that largely
one half the actual expenditures of
our State government go either di-
rectly or indirectly to the support of
the judicial department., and the re-
forms mean to propose are with ref
erence to that department.
p / cannot here take time, nor will /
occupy your space, to speak at large
of the many imperfections Of our ju-
dicial system. A few will suffice.
Our highly respected Supreme
Court has recently been severely
criticized, more on account Of the
system than upon personal grounds
or want of qualifications. The enc
great evil in that branch lies in the
fact that too many cases reach the
court of last resort. This grows
partly out of want of qualification
on the part of judges of the inferior
courts, partly out Of the fact that ap-
peals for delay can, be prosecuted at
so little cost, and partly from the
| fact that there exists no intermedi-
ate appellate court.
But it is the subject of costs and
taxation that i have more particu-
larly to deal with, and to that end
shall in a great measure confne my
remarks to the subject of our climi-
nal procedure. - '' t'A'
1 lain told that it is no unusual
thing for the State to pay bills of
cost in criminal cases, ranging from
$500 to $4,000.
Our judicial machinery is too cost
ly and complex, = and especially
does it cost the tax payers too much
to convict criminals under our pre-
sent system Let me instance a case
in point, strongly illustrative of the
evils OF which l complain About
the year 1869 a man was indicted in
the Circuit Court at cambridge for
horse stealing. He was arrested and
confined in jail, (And here may
remark, in passing, that his beard
during the whole period Of his con
finemeht, cost the State so cents per
day.) He continued his case from
term to term, upon enc pretext and
another, for something more than q
year, then changed the venue to Sc
vier county, where he obtained sew
eral continuances. At last he was
tried and convicted--the Judge set
the verdict aside, and granted him
new trial. Afterwards he obtained
several other continuances, was at
last in the summer of 1873 tried
again and again convicted. He ap-
pealed to the Supreme Court, and in
December, 1873, the Supreme Court
affirmed the judgment below. and
sent him on to the penitentiary. Here
was case of four years standing in
which the jailor' fees alone cost the
tax payers of the State about 5000
to say nothing of witness fees. ]
clerk fees, jurors fees and sheriff's
fees.
Now there should be remedy for
this, and 1 have one to propose, and
it is this, viz = to have a general Jail
delivery in every county on the Ist
Monday of every month, and thus
save the cost and expense of feeding
prisoners in our jails from term to
term of our Circuit Court.
In short / propose to abolish the
Circuit Court and the County Court,
as they are at present constituted,
and in lieu of them, establish Law
and Surrogate Court in each County
with all the powers now vested in
the Circuit Court and the Quorum
County Court, to sit on the first
Monday Of every month for the trial
of causes. civil and criminal, and
the dispatch of such business as is
now done by the Quorum County
Court, the Judge of this Court to
receive a salary about equivalent to
what is now paid the officers of the
Quorum Court, or more, if that is
insufficient. so as not. to make the
salaries paid these County Judges
greater than is the aggregate sala-
ries now paid to the Circuit Judges