Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-08-21
TRIAL BY NEwsrAPER-THE sPRAGUE
CASE

proceedings had in the Courts. The read
ers of the RECORD UNION are thus enabled
to inform themselves thoroughly upon the
theories both of the prosecution and the
defense, and it is possible that they may
reach a Just conclusion as to the merits OF
the case. The Sprague case has now
reached very remarkable position. 1t
has literally slipped out of the hands OF
the Courts, and it is practically referred
to the public again for Judgment. Its de-
termination now rests entirely with the
Governor. He is an informal Court OF
last resort, and the most strenuous efforts
are being made to influence him by pro-
curing signatures to petitions soliciting the
pardon of the defendant, from men who
for the most part know next to nothing OF
the facts in the case We have called this
trial by newspaper, because as it stands
there are no longer any legal formalities
controlling the statements which are being
made. Counsel for defense and prosecution
are free to bring forward assertions, insinu-
ations, deductions, surmises, conjec-
lures, without any fear of the
restraints which operate in Courts.
Theories which could not be pro-
mulgated at all in judicial tribunals
can be confidently advanced when the
public alone are the jury, and it is possible
to break through all Accomplishments to mis-
leading assertions which the law has Gre
ated, and to indulge in the loosest and most
colloquial kind of argument. There are in
fact no limits to the IMMUNITY with which
partisanship can be INDUCED when once
the necessity for proof has been dispensed
with. All these considerations are obvi-
Gus, and they constitute part of the argu-
ments on behalf of regulated and we'll
defined administration of settled laws by
educated jurists. How is it, then, that
with SO elaborate and carefully-devised a
system OF administrative machinery, the
people of California are in such case as
this practically relocated to the uncertain,
barbarous and trebly dangerous methods
which here seem the last resource? The
defendant Sprague has been tried and
convicted of murder by jury of his
peers, but between conviction and exc
cution there is evidently great
gulf fixed. After a protracted trial, after
the most deliberate inquiry, it is boldly
asserted that justice has not been done.
Failing a new trial, for reasons very
variously alleged by the prosecution and
the defense, the whole machinery of the
law seems to have broken down, and it
devolves upon the Governor, who is not a
judge, who is not lawyer, and who if he
SO under great disadvantages, to determine
the most awful question which can ever be
put to conscientious man-the question
of the life or death of a fellow-creature
To bias his judgment, pressure is being
brought to bear upon him in the shape Of
petitions, concerning which only one thing
requires to be said, namely, that they ought
not to be considered at all.
1t is not our purpose at this time to at
tempt any review of the evidence which
we present this morning, though as the
case stands it is entirely within the func-
tons of the press to do so. While the
naoa x,oo befora 4ba (tourtr DOMINANT ,vor, III
have been impertinent. Now that it has
been taken from the Courts and brought
before the irresponsible bar of public
opinion, it is competent to any one to ex-
press an opinion upon it. But just now
we desire only to point out the moral Of
the whole situation, and to show how i'm
possible it is that even handed justice
should be done SO long as the Courts are
liable to be superseded in this way, and
the most important criminal cases are liable
to be decided by sentimental or other
equally invalid considerations. Here is a
hideous and cruel murder committed,
under circumstances of the utmost de-
liberation. 1t Is perfectly apparent that
it belongs to a class of crimes
which is certain to increase ii the least en-
enlargement is given. But when the
Courts have done their work, when they
have refused to reopen the case, when
they in effect take the position that justice
requires the execution of the sentence that
has been pronounced, new departure is
made, the whole case is removed from the
jurisdiction of the Courts, and the Execu-
tive is called upon to retry it, without any
of the aids and safeguards which the
Courts provide, and under the pressure of
manufactured semblance of public opin-
ion which, because of the means taken to
elicit it, we must regard as being worse
than valueless as guide to judgment.
And if this is possible here and now, it is
possible at all times. 1t requires no more
than the framing of bill of exceptions
which The Court cannot admit, and any
case may be removed from the proper
jurisdiction, and referred to the newspa-
pers and the people. Nor is it possible
that any decision arrived at by the Exec
utive will be regarded as satisfactory.
Whether he pardons the defendant, or
whether he refuses to interfere, there will
be a prevailing consciousness that the solu-
ton was irregular and that justice has been
defeated. The case once taken from the
Courts, all confidence in the outcome is
destroyed. 1t is felt to DE no longer a
question of evidence and proof, but one Of
caprice, of sentiment, of moral cowardice
perhaps. In effect the final resort about
to be appealed to is little better than a new
kind Of Lynch law. It's employment ar
CUES a serious defect in the administrative
machinery. 1t conveys no assurance Of
justice, but it inevitably excites grave
doubts as to the possibility of Furnishing
crime as it ought to be punished. It's in
all its aspects dangerous and demoralizing,
and while it entails upon the Executive a
responsibility to which he ought not to be
exposed, it weakens the popular belief in
the efficiency of the Courts and the GER