New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-14
CONNECTICUT JUSTICE.

The impression gains ground that COnnectl-
cut Justice, to which public attentions just now
somewhat drawn by the Malley trial, is tender
footed as well as slOw-fOOted The murder
case now on trial at New-Haven has been tried
twice already: first by coroners jury, and
second-heaven save the mark-by justice of
the peace 1t is one of the peculiarities OF
the Connecticut method of dispensing justice
that two such trials may be had, and the re-
suit of neither of them be of the slightest
possible consequence to the prosecution or the
accused. Neither the finding of a coroners
Jury nor the decision of justice of the peace
can affect in the least degree the
final disposition of the case In the pending case
there was long hearing by cOrOners jury,
which ran along, as such cases usually do, In
a loose, tedious way, reaching at last If we
rightly remember, no particular conclusion, ex-
cent that the girl was dead and there was
considerable doubt about the manner of her
death. Then followed trial before a cOun-
try justice, which was prolonged for several
weeks, filing the sensational press with columns
upon columns of its favorite pabulum, and giving
the locality of the crime a nOtorety that for a
long time made life burden to the New
home to a constant and incessant demand
for his opinion on "the Jennie Cramer
case.D The strange feature in the Con-
necticut methods of administering justice is
that in neither of these preliminary trials did
the result which was reached have any bind
ing force upon anybody
The Justice court after long, tedious and
costly trial found "probable cause " for bind
ing over the three suspected persons for trial
bv the Supreme Court. But if the decision
had been precisely the reverse it would have
made no real difference. In the case of the
Rev. Mr.. Hayden, whose trial for murder in
the same county two years ago awakened SIM
liar and possibly wider public interest, the
preliminary trial before a justice resulted III
his acquitta, Notwithstanding which he was
indicted by Grand Jury, and after a trial
of Unprecedented length only escaped
conviction by the failure of the jury to agree.
And the deliberaton with which the first
steps-the apparently unnecessary and abso-
lutely superfluous proceedings-are taken, seems
to be copied in the subsequent processes. In
the present case the Malley boys and their
paramour, Blanche Douglass, are on trial
practically for the third time, the two pre-
vious trials having amounted to nothing, and
it being impossible from the beginning that
they could affect the result. If they are inno-
cent of the terrible crime with which they are
charged, there is manifest injustice in keeping
them so long in prison, and under suspense.
If they are guilty, the slOwness with which Con-
necticut Justice approaches the final determine
ton of the fact must operate as anything but a
deterrent of crime. The safety of society de-
mands swift punishment for the guilty: COM
mon justice calls for early vindcation of the
innocent. The machinery of criminal proceed
ure under Connecticut law seems fairly open
to criticism; it subjects the innocent to exas-
perating delay and suspense, while it encour-
ages crime by postponing the punishment of
the guilty.
Connecticut justice, too, is not only slow IN
its approaches to the determination of the
guilt or innocence. of suspected murderers,
but, if we may judge from the record in recent
cases, it is exceedingly tender toward male
factors after their guilt has been proven. In
the prison at Wethersfeld there are several
cold-blooded murderers, guilty beyond the
shadow of a doubt, who escaped hang
ing under a recently invented statute which
practically permits the jury to decide whether
the convicted murderer shall be hanged or i'm
prisoned for life. These patient and perhaps
penitent assassns are waiting for the termi-
nation of their imprisonment not by death,
but by legislative pardon. No life prisoner
ever dies in prison. Their release is only a
question of time. Last year a life prisoner
who had murdered his brother was pardoned
by the Legislature and after his release held
sort of levee in the Executive Chamber.
where the Legislators who had been pro-
foundly impressed with the sweetness of char
acter he had developed in confinement paid
their respects to him. Kate Cobb and her
paramour BishOp-wEo, upon the con-
fession of. the latter, deliberately and
slowly poisoned, the first her husband the
second his wife, in order that they might
have no bar to their Illicit intercourse-are in
prison under life sentences, looking confidently
forw ard to the time when they, too, will ex-
pcrience legislative clemency, and once more
walk abroad. Another convicted murderer,
named Andersen, sentenced for life, but con-
fined in the Middletown Insane Hospital upon
the certificate OF commission that he was
insane-his insanity being of the Guiteau sort.