New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-11-28
.JUSTJCE AND ITS FAIL URES


Fa;lnres of Justice hay Q caused of late much
serious reflection among thinking men. That
these failures have been increasingly frequent
for wears past is generally realized. Instances
mead not he cited. Many will occur to every
-oodar. and though individuals could De
found who uphold almost every acquit'a', OF
| "a. nth tho inrvmep who refuse to convict IN
almost every case of disagreement, neverthe-
| loss the number of cases in which the results
are condemned rs defeats of justice by the
vast majority of intelligent people is I'M
pleasantly large and steadily increasing 1t
il generally felt, too, that the methods of the
law are not equal in their operation. The rich
man has an enormous advantage over the poor
or the friendless; he whose offence or whose posi-
ton enlists in his defence considerable body
of sympathizers. whether because OF his pro-
fessed aims or his social or political relations,
or his connection with any issue of public in
terest, can employ the skill of the keenest
lawyers in eutaugling judges, befogging iuries
and beating justice by pettifogging, while most
accused persons, not more guilty, IT guilty at
all. get scanty defence and are pursued to the
eallows or the penitentiary by indignant public
opinion.
Failures of Justice do incalcnlabe harm, and
vet perhaps not more than the growing delays
| of Justice 1t took but an instant to throw the
| bomb by which many faithful officials of law
were murdered at Chicago; apparently it may
| take wears to arrive at decision whether the
| Anarchists shall be hanged. The practices OF
the courts tolerate, If they may not fairly be
said to favor, almost indefinite delays in
crimina, AZ we'll as civil cases, whenever law
yers of prominence are employed. The delay
r,hs the punishment of most of its effectiveness
for the prevention of crime, even when the
criminal is finally punished.
As consequence we have lawless violence
Americans are practical. If courts refuse or
fail to protect society, sooner or later lynch law
becomes prevalent, riots break out, like the
one at Cincinnati which the escape of muir
derer caused; or vigilance committees come
into being, and sweep away unfortunately
forms of law, corrupt justices, misunderstanding
lawyers and criminals together. Public
respect for law is not strengthened by these
outbreaks but they do not often occur save
when it has become the prevalent belief that
Justice is dead, and that the courts exist mainly
to shield crime.
Probably there is not an intelligent man in
the country who would not favor a different
system of criminal procedure from that which
we now have, if there were opportunity to
| create a new system from the foundation
| Our methods were inherited from Great
Britain, and have been modified or improved
much less than til ose of Great Britain, as the
progress of events has rendered modification
necessary to the public protection. They were
inherited from an age in which the chief
anxiety of the people was to secure defence tor
| individual rights against despotic Injustice.
| Bnt it has come to pass that crime is less
promptly and surely punished in Great Britain
| than in almost any other civilized country. and
less promptly or surely in the United States
than in Great Britain. 1t is plain that the
pendulum ought now to swing in the opposite
| direction. Neither the tyranny of rulers nor
the Injustice of public opinion is in these days
so much to be feared as the decay of public
confidence in the law and public respec: for
legal decisions. There is needed now not moro
defence for the individual, but more defence
for society, for public order and for justice.
Unless the courts, lawyers, intelligent lurymen
and thoughtful citizens unite to enforce TIE
laws more faithfully and quickly, or to modify
them in the different States So that justice may
be reached with greater certainty and prompt
ness, the laws and those whose profession it Ia
to administer them will presently be lude)y
and perhaps unjustly handled by an In
digpant public opinion, which may not rightly
distinguish between unavoidable miscarriage
and intentional defeat of justce-between the
measures and methods that are really necessary
for individual protection, and those practices
that only serve to shelter crime and to enrich
| lawyers