Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1888-07-05

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So difHcult is it to convict a man Of
any serious crime before jury. as now
constituted, that many look upon the
whole system as an obstruction to
justice, and demands it's abolition.
This impatience is not unreasonable
but it goes too far. The system may
be shorn of its abuses and made to
serve this generation as efficiently as
served our forefathers.
But its abuses are apparent even to
the uninitiated. No important trial
conducted before a jury selected from
the regular panel. When it is exhaust
ed, the State challenges are exhausted
too, and the lawyers for the accused
make up the jury to suit their client.
For such a jury intelligence disqual.
lies man, information disqualifies
him; rigid views favoring the punish
ment OF crime disqualifies; general
good character disqualifies him; and,
as result, the man is tried. not by
representative citizens, not by men
who have anything at stake in the
community, but ordinarily by those
whose character and mental en6ow-
ments unfit them for such public
duties.
It is not necessary to make up the
entire jury IN this way; one determin-
ed man, selected after the State has
exhausted it's challenges, will in an
emergency outvote eleven. To avoid
accidents the one necessary juror is
not left solitary and alone, but others
are put on to give him countenance
and support. We are not making
vague charge OF corruption; we leave
that entirely out of the question now,
and base our objections to the lati,
tude allowed the accused. because OF
which time and again the ends OF jus.
tice have been thwarted.
For in modern times most OF our
murder trials turn not on the evil
dence, but on the mental characters
tics or the moral bias OF the jurymen.
The main facts are not in dispute; a
man has been killed, the accused did
the killing. The aim of the lawyers
tOI bllC hCACA4oC 10 W COhAdbI buCDO
simple facts; to raise q "doubt,"
reasonable or unreasonable, as to
the sanity OF the accused, his provo
cation, his responsibility, etc. 1t is
not Justice that in such cases a man
is seeking, but protection under the
forms of an outraged law from its
wrath and power.
These peremptory challenges are, as
it were a gratuity-a premium for
crime. Objections to any juryman
can be stated, and il sound, the Judge
accepts them, and he is rejected. The
peremptory challenges are used when
the Judge decides in some particular
case that the objections are not
sound.
II may have been necessary under
forms OF government mole tyranical
than ours, to throw this extra pro-
lection about the citizen, in order to
shield MIN from malicious persecution
by men in authority, or by the chief
ministers of state. There exists to-
day no necessity for such precau-
ton. The trouble is now not to pro-
tect the innocent but to punish the
guilty.
No man desires to withdraw any
provision essential to the vindication
of a mans character or to the pro-
lection OF his life. But the laws are
not made to shield criminals; they are
made to deter the guilty. To.
day only the law-ahiding cit
izen has anything to fear. He
is disarmed by the law and turned
over to the tender mercies of thee Grim
inal classes, who under existing laws
enjoy perfect immunity. These men
OF violence go armed at all times. II
they need to slay they have little fear
of the gallows; the greater their crime,
the greater their security.
This condition of affairs has proven
especially harmful in some of the
Southern and Western States. 1t has
given them a name for violence and
bloodshed which generation cannot
change, and which under existing laws
can never be changed. II murder is to
be punished, if the law is to become a
terror to the evil-doer, its anministra-
ton must be more effective than it has
ever been.
1t will not do to say, as all criminal
lawyers do when the subject is up for
discussion, that the laws are sufficient
if they are enforced. They are not
enforced, and every obstruction is
placed in the path OF those who repre-.
sent those States.-American Cultiv&
tor.