The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1889-11-07
DELAYS IN THE LAW.
From the Forsyth Advertiser.

administration of law bave become
such, that it is getting to be a
tedious job to administer the law at
all in cases of crimes of grave i'm
port. This difficulty is not local
nor limited to one state, but is al
most universal, Petty criminals are
usually tried and punished with dis
patch. But criminals guilty of
crime involving liberty or life, and
especially the latter, are kept out of
trial through legal technicalities and
hardness of law until many instan-
ces the patience of the law abiding
citizens becomes threadbare. In
deed, in cases of murder, it is get
ting to be somewhat difficult even
to secure jury to inquire into the
facts touching the same. Law is
made to protect society against
criminals, yet tho more heinous the
crime the greater the effort upon
the part of the counsel to stay the
penalty that attaches to the crimi-
nal: Every legal technicality and
subterfuge is resorted to, to stay
the prosecution of the party charged
with a heinous crime. And not in
frequently, when criminal has been
tried and found guilty, the chances
Of delay afforded by the law are
taken advantage Of to the fullest ex-
tent to keep off as long as possible
the infiction of the punishment.
On this point the Macon Telegraph
aptly says:
A petty thief may be promptly
sent to prison; it takes weeks or
months of unremitting effort to con-
vict murderer, and conviction may
only mean that the first Of many
chances has gone against the crimi-
nal. Even if all the chances 60
against him and he has finally to
pay the penalty of his crime many
months, or perhaps years, will have
elapsed, and his experience serves
to illustrate the faults of our Judi
cial system, rather than the conse-
quences of wrong doing. Under
such. circumstances the greater part
of the moral effect of capital pun
ishment is lost, and it is the moral
effect only on bad men that jutifes
society in deliberately taking the
life ofone of its members guilty of
crime.
Such proceedings largely increase
the cost of executing the criminal
laws and thus piles up a burden
upon the law abiding citizens. Fur
Their, they seem to cultivate tina
terrible spirit among people tina
drives them in some instances to
resort to lynch law.
In a work soon to be publishe
Cardinal Gibbons commenting o.
this subject says:
GA crying evil is the wide inter
val that so often interposes between
criminal conviction and the exc
cution of the sentence, and the fire.
quent defeat of justice by the delay
Human life isiudeed sacred, but tn,
laudable efforts to guard it have gon
beyond bounds. OF late years tn
difficulty to convict, in murder trial
especially, has greatly increases
from the widened application to tn
pleas in bar, notably that of insani
ty. When q conviction has beer
reached innumerable delays gener
orally stay the execution. Tn
many grounds of exception allowe'
to the counsel, the appeals from tn
court to another with final appliea
ton to the governor, and the facili
ty with which signatures for pardon
are obtained, have combined t
throw around culprits an extrava
CANT protective system and gon
far to rob jury trial of its substanc
and efficacy. A prompt executio
Of the laws sentence after a fai
trial is which strikes terror in ev
doors and satisfies the public cor
science. The reverse OF this anon
US has brought reproach upon tn
plausible grounds for the application
oflynch law"