The morning call., 1891-10-01
THE BOoDLERs.

As was expected Judge Murphy has dis
charged Chute. For the hour chicanery
wins, Doodle is triumphant and the effort
to put a check to corruption has been
checked by a Superior Court Judge. The
decision is bad law and bad morals bat no
body looked for ANYTHING else. 1t will not
hold in the long run, hut for the moment
there it is. Judge Murphy had before him
the task of finding a plausible excuse for
bad ruling; the excuse which he found
shows how difficult the task proved. 1t is
annoying that a lawyer who could get
elected to the Superior Bench would have so
little stlf-respect as to acknowledge the
authorship of the Judgment the substance of
which IS printed in another column.
The gist Of Judge Murphy's argument
was that the law obliged him to issue writ
Of habeas corpus. So it does; bat it does
not require that he shall try the cases in
which an arrest has been made and writ
of habeas corpus issued. All That the State
Constitution requires is that Judge shall
satisfy himself that he who sues out writ
of habeaS corpus is restrained Of lis liberty
without legal authority. II he finds that the
man is held under a regular process Of law
issued by a court of competent jurisdiction
he is bound by decisions Of the Supreme
Court to remand him, and to let the question
of his guilt or innocence be determined by
the cour: which caused his arrest. Were it
otherwise any Judge might, on habeas
corpus proceeding, take criminal cases ogt
Of the hands Of the court especially APP
pointed TO try them, and proceed to try them
on a collateral proceeding.
And again, Judge AurDhy's decision
amounts to an assertion of his right to re-
view the action OF his colleagues on the
bench. He affirms that he has the right TO
decide whether a brother Judge did or did
not exceed his authority in arresting man
for contempt, and if he thinks that he did,
be holds that he is empowered to reverse his
brother Judge and release the man. This
is not law as laid down by the Supreme
Court. Into what confusion will the ad-
ministration of justice be plunged if an ap-
peal lies from every one of the twelve Su-
perior Court Judges to each of the other
eleven, especially if that appeal may be
prosecuted on a collateral ISSUE and each of
the twelve may try cases on their merits on
some interlocutory proceeding, though they
have been regularly assigned TO another
Judgel
Finally, whether the Grand Jury was or
was not legally constituted, it does not lie
in the mouth of a witness 10 question its
legality. A prisoner who has been indicted
by a Grand Jury and convicted at regular
trial may plead that tile Grand Jury was
irregularly impaneIed, and if lie makes
good his point, his conviction will be
quashed But witness VINO is supposed to
have no interest in the findings of the Grand
Jury cannot impugn its legality, and on
that ground refuse to give his evidence. On
this point Judge Murphy did not touch, and
for a good reason. 1t was too strong to be
gainsad.
And now, what next ? If any man sup
poses that the uprising against corruption
is going to stop here, he is mistaken. The
present miscarriage of justice will merely
add fuel to the fame; it will intensity the
determination of the people to uproot b0od-
lerism root aud branch.