, 1877-07-08
And Proves Ito His Own Satislactlon)
that It's Practice Needs
Reforming.
Having Settled That Point, He All"
dayits tie County Jail
NIenu.
Whereupon Two 1ncarcerated Wretches
Come to the Rescue Of Sheriff
Kern's Soup,
And Pronounce It Wholesome aud
Very Fatteuing---Who Is
Right 2
FLORENCE MCCARTHY AGAIN.
IN the Editor Of 1hk Tribune

10 the Editor Of 7ht Tribune =,
CHICAGO July 7.-as grave and terrible as are
tho perls to liberty arising from our jail sys~
ten and our jail practices, NC arc in still greater
pcri, from our criminal laws and the practice OF
our criminal tribunals.
Tuking these a5usgs in their logical order, tho
first one TINT should be noticed land rlall barely
notice it, concerns criminal process. We peea All
titional restrictions on the Issue OF warrants for
arrest The only remedy we have at present
for fa1sc imprisonment is civil suit. Conse-
aucutly ulan who who wishes to arrest another
latc Saturday night and keep hiu In tic jail oser
Sunday simply gets some yagahoHu TO swear Out
the warrant. 1t is q perfectly safe proceeding,
and some OF the best men in Chicago have been
Imprisoned IN this way, from mere malice. The
only remedy is evil suit and capias, which
hardly ever results in imprisonment, and there is
psaeteally no redress.
The manner OF serving criminal process in this
sta,e is by reading. THIS is great evil. A man
who has never had any dealings with the courts is
simply daxcd by having warrant read to him; and
when he has been lodged in the jail, and lila ator
ney has arrived, he cannot for his life tell
him whether it was bench warrant
Ur a state warrant, what Judge or Justice
issued it, for what crime, evcn for whose arrest
The right svay would be to read 1t to him and then
deliver him copy; and our laws should ae chang
cd 10 a. to compel this to be DONE But must
pass to more important matter
Our laws provide that every person charged
with crime, who shall state upon oath that he is
unable to pzocnrc counsel shall have competent
counsel assigned him by the Court, who shall con-
duct hia defense. !" Rev. Stat, Chap So, Sec.
i.., And the practice OF oar Criminal Court Is to
assign counsel to every needy person without ex-
actingan cath, which is all proper enough. But in
another respect the practice of The Court in assign
ing counsel III wrong. The counsel is not assigned
until the prisoner has been arratgncd and has
pleaded to the Indictment. Rnt there are many
cases in which to ''conluct his defeusc'' means to
sce to it that the prisoner shall be arrayned
at all, nor bc required to plead at all. And in
these cases. to assign him counsel after be has
pleaded, 1s like sending man physicnn after he
s deatl This viii! appear more clearly further On
ri, rasa now to d 1raycr abuse. which stands
connected with this. atatute book contains the
followin. law:
the indictment: and i list o,, Of the the
sci, be furnished W ith copy OF the Indictment,
nnd list of the jurors and Witnesses" [kev.
Thus tie LEGISLATURE, with its usual sapicncy.
has provided thar man Indicted for petty larceny
must be furnished w'tha copy ct hls indletmsnt a.
man who is Indicted for murder cannot demand Il
cupy OF his indictment until the last moment be-
fose he is ARA i.ncd to plead to It, True, the
spcction III the Clerks office, by any and every
Citizen Int wha, good does this do i man who Is
locked mp in cell six feet square in the }ail!
Trte again, he ought to have law
gsf But and snDRS:e 4nc een1 e viii not " a!s
him one uutil he Is arrasped. Thus We We zee thai,
persons by the strong arm ot the law. Kept in
ignorance Of the charge against them until Inc very
muu:ent when they are uslered into Tue courtroom
AMI required to plend to it.
Iut ft.e case is far worse than this. In OUT Grim
inal court prisoner i never given \ copy o. his
in!ictmcnt until aI1er he has pieaded. The Clerk
John Jones that he has been indicted for stealing
horse worth $loo. and asks him whether he is
tAs iqdieen' up ,ns and hands ,"ae hefo1e t. to
.}oIn on yones 1 las lawyer to advise him Thus John
Jones H. by the dl9Mty HnL authority OF the Court
coerced in:o pleading to his Indictment. not only
before he has heard it read. or knows anything
whatever Of its validity iii IN indictment
The indictment always has written on its back
tlc prisoner is to be prosecuted. and copy OF
which, likewise, be is entitled to receive before
pleading The st o. 5S 70 hs re-, ~ y ths hs
names Of tic thirty men from whom nc Jury Ct
twelve is to be sclcce. by whom tie prisoner Will
be tried This list is never furnished John Joncs
1m,ntcI and obtnned It for ci,cnt the Court treat
cd ME to MI annihia stare. and II John Jonea
eIips around to the Clerks Office the next aioEni1g
and examines the record Of his case, he hnds it in
s.Thls .lay come the said people by Luther Laf
lin stills. States Attorney; and tac said defendant
a. well in his own proper person as " MS eoaMxe!.' @
also comes; and he hariag been Furnished a1fh 6
copy Of The indictment in fhi* cause. and isfs Gf
fhs names Of Tie mifHtsSes anti jurors, and he
being now here duly arrai.1cd, and forthwith de-
mandctl OF aud conccrninyth crs alleged against
him in said Indictment h'w e wl!l ac4n,t IN h!m3ei u at
guilty in manner and form u charged therein, mud
Of this he puts himself upon the country, and the
AnI although the words in this record which
have italicized may be, and in nlnety-nin cases
out of hundred are, utterly false. thc record i
Court hus refused me, in two or three cases, to
amend this record and make it conform to the
facts. though produced the requisite atidasits,
and there was no rcbutting testimony Whatever.
The Clerk said that this was 4 stcreotypcd
form; and the Court said, - Wen, will not
amend it..
of this whole procedure. And will cunsider first,
the case in which, the prisoner pleads ynllty =
few prisoners do plead .i'ty: nna IN our Criminal
have ueyer seen nor heard read to them, and con.
ccrnlng which they have never rsce!;ed @ wora Of
prisoner Who offers 10 plead guilty what the penalty
IF the crime is bnt the Court will not instruct him
who found the indictment, whether II charges
whether tLns been signed by the States Attorney
Yet tue poor unfortunate creatnte is virtually
forced to plead to the unseen Instrument and per
hans to plead guilty to crime Of which
he is entirely innocent, even II he
be be guilty Of some other crime. And very
p5tcn prisoner is in this way mis}eu into
stealing guilty to crime when he il not guilty of
that OF any other. crime. a man who takes
nnnthcrs horse, under the impression that he has
n r;nbt to collect debt in that way, is q tres
naseer but not thief But in our Criminal Court
e yo,,1l be ant to plead guilty to larceny exactly
in proportion to his honesty, Similar errors are
made concerning cmbezzlelncnt, which ID fncona-
Dlete without some net Of appropriation, and per-
iury. which must he committed in julicia1 pro-
ccc1lipg to be crime, and IN fact concerning all
crimes.
But, sayB some lawyer, 1t is easy enough for him
10 change his p1ca afterwards. And TO this have
two answcrs First, have heard such m applica-
ton refused another attorney in .onr Criminal
Court and the refusal accompanied with words
like these: 81 The man ought to know whether he
is guilty or not. lie pleaded guilty, and am not
gong to allow him to change big plea Just to let yoa
try case. Yet this pleaded guilty without pro-
fessional advice. and under what regard as the
coercion OF the Court. Secondly. supposing that
an innocent man whp has been thus misled into
pleading guilty gets permission to change his plea.
it still remains true TINT he has once blended guilty
to the crime, which may possibly hnrt his case on
the trial, OF st least disgrace him In the communi
ty FOR the rest OF his life.
Now, supposing that the prisoner thus ar
raigncd pleads not guilty, the damage which he
receives is nearly as great as IN the other case.
+4vx A-x