Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1884-04-05
THE RIOTS LESSON.

The outbreak at Cincinnati last
week occasioned profound sensation
throughout the country, and natur-
ally directed attention to the imper-
fections and anomalies of our system
of criminal jurisprudence. The fire.
quency of escape from capital pun
ishment by villains VIGOROUSLY gull.
ty upon one frivolous pretext or an
other, has become an alarming Incl
dent under government framed to
protect the "inherent right of every
individual to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness" The conse-
quence has been that the larger num-
Der, "unwhipt of justice" go free to
to boast of the laws vindication
ard, in many instances, to repeat the
inlquity.
That this should be the case is not
to be wondered at, even aside from
the fact that juries may be corrupted.
The law itself furnishes far greater
protection to the guilty. Here in
Maryland in the empanel of a jury
the prisoner enjoys twenty challenges,
the State four, while upon the roi'
dire the intelligence Of the commun-
ity is mutually excluded from pass
ing upon the facts in the case. A
gentleman whose pleasure and profit
it is to keep posted IN the affairs of
the times, having read accounts of
crime, and who has thus formed or
expressed an opinion concerning it, is
not wanted by the defense. Intelli-
gence, the great factor Of progress
and the boast of the age and race, is
prescribed as ineligible and unfit to
ascertain guilt or innocence from
given amount of testimony. "The
intuitlve decisions and matured judg-
ments of bright, keen-edged intel
lects" give place to the fat-witted
determinations and unripe discern
ments of dull and beastly natures.
The prisoner obtains in full the bene-
fit of the legal premium upon ignor-
ance. His next opportunity, if he
dares avail himself of it, is the right
to testify in his own behalf, though
his declination to do so is not to be
accounted against him. 1t is admit
ted now that he is convicted, and to
the ordinary mind it would seem this
ought in most cases settle the matter.
Up to this stage, however, he stood
upon the defensive. Now he assumes
the aggressive, and generally the
State has more than it can do to meet
him upon equal ground. He moves
for new trial. If granted he gains
time and more advantages than he
enjoyed i'll the first. Convicted again.
he may move an arrest of Judgment,
or appeal on writ of error. He may
even demand inquisition into his san
ity. All else failing, there is the
governor who may reprieve or par
don. All this time the State has no
recourse but to fight the prisoners
advances at every step.
In public meeting at Cincinnati
preceding the riot the people demand
ed change in the criminal laws of
Ohio to the end that justice may be
more certainly and uniformly adj
ministered. With considerable show
for it that demand might be echoed
in Maryland. One of our Circuit
Court judges had recent occasion to
warn juryvtamperers. There is also
well-detined notion abroad that our
plan of selecting names for the jury
box is open to serious objection in
that 1t affords certain officials oppor-
tunity 10 distribute the jury fund in
pay for political services. At any
rate, it is certain that unworthy and
unfit men are drawn, and it is not,
therefore, strange that the communi-
ty should be occasionally startled by
verdlcts sensational as the crimes adj
judged.
Lawyers have frequently claimed
to be the law-making class of the
country. Their titles to political
preferment are based upon this Just
assumption, and they have been al
lowed by the people with generous
liberality. They have gone to Con-
gress and the Legislature by scores
and pre-empted position by establish
ing formulas of enactment SO COM
pick and diffnse that laymen are ma
turally deemed incapable of compre.
hending much less mastering them.
Among these ara Our crio;n.l ,+o4