Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-04

and the matter is one of Judicial discretion
wholly. 1t has been urged that England
is not by this innovation taking an adj
vance step. Unquestionably criminal ap-
psals have been subject to abuse. They
have served TO defeat the ends Of justice,
by delay to wear out the patience of Courts
and to lessen respect for law. But, not
withstandiDg, the right of appeal is one
rising superior TO all objections to it. If it
has worked i'll here at times, it is
because Of methods and processes,
and not because of inherent defects
in the system that recognizes the
right. But the subject should not be thus
CURLY dismissed. That the two great
English. speaking nations, whose laws
spring from the same basic principles go
largely, should stand apart in this matter,
has always been question OF profound IN
teress for the law student. In America
we regard the right of appeal in criminal
cases as based upon one of the soundest
principles of criminal jurisprudence, and it
has in but few instances been trammeled.
It is not to be denied that there is much
to be urged against criminal appeal as of
right 1t obtains, no matter how clearly
guilt is shown it delays execution OF de-
crees formulated according to approved
systems OF law; it affords the defendant
every advantage, and enlarges his chances
of escape, since witnesses may die, public
opinion lose its edge, unwarranted sym
pathy for the prisoner be conjured to his
aid, and the final execution when it comes
be stripped of the very effect intended
the lettering of wrong-doers. On the
other hand, the English system couples
certainty with severity. It seizes
the criminal by grasp that is
never relaxed while an acquittal, as
with US, 10 a bar, bis conviction If,
with rare exceptions. the knell of doom.
Time there dulls no edge, delay aoftens no
sense of horror awakened by the murder
ers act. But it is to be advanced in favor
of the legal change proposed in England
that appeal is the chief safeguard of the
innocent; it is check upon biased Court
or an influenced jury; it is the only rem.
edy for fragrant injustice; it gives time for
elimination of doubt and for writing up
the record of guilt with the nearest posi-.
bic approach to absolute certainty. Our
system, it is true, often receives rude
shocks, as when such murderers as Dukes
are set free, and the acquittal is an abso.
lutte bar to appeal against the undoubted
criminal. Bat when the American citi-
zen, familiar with our penal codes, the jury
and appeal systems, and observant of their
workings and effects, has weighed the ques-
tion well, he must come to the conclusion
we indicated at the outset, that the recog-
milton of the absolute right of appeal with
US is better. safer and every way more CIV
LIKING than the system of England, which
intrusts such absolute power over lie and
liberty to the discretion of tribunal. He
will be struck, also, with the force of this
conclusion when he notes the fact that a
bill to conform to our system should obtain
second reading in the English House of
Commons, and be further convinced that
the principle of cur codes is sound one.
and is making It's way to light in England
because it is right principle.