St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-04
THE IMPERFECT JUHY SYSTEM.
INFLUX OF CRIME.

Inc Jury system once boosted OF as the
glory of English law and the evidence of adj
vancing civilization, is becoming unpopular,
and is everywhere cried against, especially
in criminal cases. Jurors are protectors in
stead of proper publishers of criminals. The
late riot in Cincinnati was due to the out
rageous verdict of jury in bringing in a
criminal as guilty only of manslaughter,
when he was guilty of a most bloody premed-
itated murder for the purpose of robbery.
The dissatisfaction in Cincinnati had been
increasing for long time, as murderers,
under the operation of the jury system, one
after another, went ''unwhipped of justice, {"
and this feeling eliminated, when the YER
dict of manslaughter in the case of Berner
was announced, in an indignant outbreak,
that took the form Of mob violence.
The fact must patent to every one, that
the jury system needs radically remodeling.
The tests applied to the selection of jury men
are not only ridiculous but preposterous. In
this day of newspapers and thorough news
paper reporting, it is impossible to find a
man of any intelligence and ability to read,
WIZ uOG huOUlCltSC VI ally I'LL
case of great public interest, and who may
not have formed some opinion about it, The
result is the slums have to be raked to find
jurymen ignorant enough or stupid enough
to go on the jury. This was notorious in
Berner case at Cincinnati. A panel of
twelve hundred was exhausted, before the
requisite amount of ignorance, stupidity and
imbecility could be found to constitute jury
Such a jury can be unduly inflSenced by
able lawyers for the defense, and, also, can
be approached by illigetimate influences
Besides, they have not capacity enough to
weigh testimony properly, or to understand
the principles of law, as enunciated from the
bench. As judicial proceedings are now ad-
ministered, if a jury happens to have an
clement of intelligence among its members
it is so confronted by so much dense stupid
ity, that disagreement is sure to ensue, or
a just verdict almost certain not to be rem
dered
For example recur to the disagreement of
the jury, in the great Tilton Beecher case.
There were low and besotted jurymen on the
intelligence. The inevitable result was a
disagreement. Call to mind the case of
Dukes in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where
the seducer of a daughter and the murderer
of her father, was brought in ''not guiltv''
by besotted, ignorant, brutal, knavish jury
And the recent case of Berner in Cincinnati,
is an equally forcible illustration of the de-
fects of our present jury system.
Some other tests than those now applied
must be resorted to, in the selection of Jurors,
to keep ignorance, stupidity and immortality
out Of the jury-box, and to fill it with intel
lgent, competent, and respectable and re-
liable men. Otherwise, let the system itself
be abolished, for as now administered it is
articepS crinai'aiS with guilt, instead of the ad
ministrator of justice and the proper guar
dian and protector of society.
The vast tide aud influx of crime that is
flooding the country must be arrested or all
the barriers and safeguards for the protec-
ton of society will be broken down. The
result will be civil revolution, and not a.
bloodless one either, as broad as the world
itself, of which we have just had foretaste
nCincinnati.
If the courts, with the forms of law will
not or cannot afford adequate protection to
community, and properly punish crime,
"Judge Lynch'' will be inevitably invoked to
interpose, and justice will be meted out,
without the forms of law, to bloody Grimm
ais, or lawless injustice will be perpetrated
without the forms of law, as injustice is now
too often, administered under the staid, dig
nifed, but abused forms of law.
And here we may remark, that vice, wick
edness and crime of every degree and name
are poisoning the very fountains of civil life,
and undermining the very foundations of So
cial virtue. Why is this?
Simply because of the prevalent laxity, and
uncertainty in the punishmentof crime.
The sickly sentimentality that induces leg
islatures to abolish capital punishment, is a
step towards barbarism, instead of a higher
civilization, as is claimed, and is an incentive
to lawless lynching, and mob rule. Make
the punis hment of crime, sure, swift, and in
@ xorably certain, and powerful check, and
barrier to crime is at once erected. GA life
for a life," should be the legal motto
Murder should be punished with death.