The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-01-05
WHERE THE FAULT IS.

merited. We will forego any expression OF
that surprise We lelt at the tone of the arti-
Gle in question, knowing how fair and con-
scryatve the Post is on almost all questions,
and will come at once to an impartial, and
wetrust, reasonable discussion of the ques'
ton raised by the Post. We do not attach
any blame to the court Of appeals for any of
its decisions. OF course the members of That
court are not infalble, but every man in the
state or out o f. it, who knows John 2. w hite,
the presiding Judge, and his associates, C.
M. Winkler and j. M. Hurt, knows them
to be gentlemen SAYS peur, sa.s reproche.
They arc gentlemen of ability and
and learning and well, if not profoundly
versed in the law. With calm dignity, AN
firing research and jealous, morciful pa
thence they consider all the law and the
facts in the criminal cases brought before
them for final adjudication, and with con-
scientious devotion to duty according to their
best information and understanding they
construe and adjudgs the law as they hnd it,
as it is made by tho legislature of tho state
aud given to them TO administer, that is to
say, to passupon. But it is not our object
Specially in this article to espouse or cham
pion the cause Of tho individual members Of
this court They are above suspicion even,
and their decisions upon tho Law in its letter
and spirit as it appears in the statute book
Of the state challenge the criticism, just and
legitimate of the people and of the legal
learning of the entire country. Tho fault is
not in tho court of appeals, but it is with the
lower, the district courts, in
part, and with the code of criminal pro-
eeduro in the main. In the selection of dis
trict judges, too much politics enter into the
matter. Legal aItsinmonts too often arc
sacrificed to tho political influence of aspi-
rants, and gentlCmeR arc nominated ard
elected TO the district bench who are not
fully qualified for the responsibilities of tho
exalted position. The consequence is that
able lawyers defending criminals succeed, if
not in clearing their clients before the iuries,
in taking advantage of the legal technicali-
ties the court oycrlooks, aud tho mistakes the
court makes in charging the law in getting
royorsals and eventually by the lapse Of time
and the consequent forgotlulness Of Wit
nesses, in clerFing their clients, The Post
instances the case of Gris'om, tried before
tho criminal district court Of Houston, JUDGE
Cook presiding, as case wherein the court
of appeals was Che cause of tho defendant es-
Gaping Justice for the murder of DR..
Brown, of Columbus Thil case was one of
The two or three appealed from that court
that has been reversed. We say ono of tho
two or three reversed, for it ia a fact of
record that out otthe hundreds Of cases ap-
pealed from Judge Cooks court in Houston
and Galveston during thepast 1--we years and
a half not exceeding four have been 70.
'ersed, his judgments and rulings in all tho
others being sustained. In the Grissom case.
The defendant being found guilty, with tho
death penalty, the case was reversed on n
Lechnicality, technicalty, too, admitting Of
two constructions, and tho court of appeals
construed 1t opposite Ia tho lower court be,
cause that construction was on the side of
mercy and in accordance with tho legal
requirement that every doubt shall 20 to the
benefit Of the accused. When tho case was
.ried the second timo the defendant was
again found guilty Of murder in the first de.
gree, but instead of tho death penalty
he criminal was sent to the penteptiarv
or life, just as the law says jury in is CD.
ion may do. If the law makes conHpemep,
n tho penitentiary at hard labor for life a
punishment equal with that of death on tho
allows, is tho court Of appeals or any other
curt responsible or to be blamed when a
lr5 in its option gives this punishment for
'urder' The Post, and other papers toe,
arp upon the Currie and Rothschild cases and
lame the courts for the acquiltal of theso
ION. IL the court that tried Rotb,cbid
hon he was found guilt erred in its m,
gs upon the law and in its charge Of ihs
w TO tho jury, must The court of ANNALS
net those errors are patent to it, sustain
lem simply because numerous peac!5 saw
othschid was guilty of murder! Whatever
'ult there is lies in the law itself, not in the
burt of final resort The law of the state, and
IT that matter it is law everywhere ,
'ys that when man commits an infraci,on
law although that inlraction be ny,,asr,
hen he isin a state of insauit',, though
nat insanity be from druukenr ga tho 80, Of
nO yiOlaier himself, he is NJ, respon,ible Ia
ho law bad one? Is It subyorsivo Of tho
est interests of tho country? Isita menace
o society! Then let tho people choose leg
slSiors 'ono will change tho law. Ii, as in
"a Currie case, tho court charges the Jury
what tho law is and the Jury on their oatbs
believe that the defendant has proven that AZ !
The time tho ofense was committed he was
insane, is the court of appeals or the lower
court TO be blamed for tho verdict of the
jury II, in the Rothschild case, when 1t
was appealed, the court of appeals rad
failed to reverse the judgment of
the lower court, the lower court having
erred in constrsing ana applying the law, /!
would have made an assault upon tho RIGHTS