The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-02-21
Convict Testimony Unassailnble.

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cannot be over-estimated. Just SO soon as
q man or woman assumes the striped raj
ment of States Prison he or she becomes
invested with degree of infallibility and
veracity never before enjoyed by the
happy convict. Even if a man has always
been first-class North American liar in
his private capacity, be becomes, when he
is committed to Jail, a person of absolutely
startling, phenomenal and even disgusting
truthfulness. However depraved he may
have been before his imprisonment, he
develops, Immediately after entering his
cell, into being of transeendent moral
perfection, whose word in a court of law
is always to be taken against the word Of
any common person whose only claim TO.
credibility rests on no more solid founda-
ton than his established reputation as an
honest and respectable citizen. From this
it will readily appear that it is mere folly
and childishness for a sensible man to
keep out of jail unless be is willing to be
regarded by the juries of the land as a
perjured scoundrel.
We think that, since this state of affairs,
however astounding itseems. does actually
exist, it may, perhaps, be as well to reform
the law in this respect. 1t is obviously
impossible for the majority Of us to 60 to
prison. We must stay out of it in order
to support our families and attend to
business. Shall it then be any longer toll
Grated that because we cannot afford to
be conyicts we shall be treated by our tri-
bunals of justice as if we were wholly
bereft of any sense of veracity 2 That
would hardly be fair. OF course we do
not propose 10 make the reform too
radical. We are in favor of proceeding
gently about the matter. We are willing
to concede that the man who is serving a
life sentence shall have the privilege in
our courts of being believed against all
other Witnesses. Next to him in credi-
bility we shall place the prisoner who has
been sent up for twenty years. But just
here, we think, the line should be drawn.
The fellow who has been sentenced for
only ten years should not be allowed to
have his word preferred to that of the
ordinarily honest man. We know that this
opinion is not shared by our jurists, but
still we believe it TO be sound and there
are reasons for it. In the first place, the
man who has been sent up for only ten
years cannot, in that comparatively short
period, acquire such profound love of
the truth and such constitutional incli-
nation to tell 1t as would justify such a
preference. He may be able to tell the
truth nine times cut of ten, but so can the
average man when he puts his..mind to it.
Let us not be misunderstood by our read
ers. We are not now advocating the
proposition that the word of an honest,
unconvicted citizen should beItaken against
the word of the ten-year convict. That
would be unreasonable. But. we do con-
tend that the word of the ten-year convict
should not be regarded by our juries as
more credible than the word ofsan honest,
unconvicted citizen. The honest, uncon-
victed citizen bases his credibility upon
his excellent character. Tho ten-year
coayict points with pride to the record Of
his sentence. Now, while we do not
claim that the excellent character Of the
former should give him any better stand.
ing in court than the latter enjoys by
reason of his ten-year commitment, yet
we must assert that the convict's sentence
should not confer upon that individual
any more consideration than the uncon-
victed citizen receives on account of his
untarnished reputation. There should be
as between them perfect moral equilib.
rum Of credibility. But when we get
down to the five year convict we really
feel that he ought to be regarded as less
worthy Of belief than the honest man.
And this, perhaps. may be considered by
some superficial persons as complete
abandonment Of the theory that sentence
in prison has tendency to make men
prolific Of truth. 1t is nothing Of the
sort The fact is that when q man who has
never OF seldom been known to tell the
truth enters his cell as convict, he comes
Immediately under those peculiar influ-
ences that eventually convert him into d
man of absolute veracity. But at first,
and perhaps for some wears. the conflict