Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-11-17

WIFI VI
LAWYER PUIDY DRAINING THE BOTTLE.
drug. it being worse than the sandbag or
blackjack in the hands of a highwayman.
There is enough poison in these bottles.'
he continued, pointing TO the connections,
Ito kill a small army"
Nonsense" was the reply of Lawyer
Purdy, the prisoners counsel. land l will
prove it, He thereupon poured the stuff
down his throat while the prisoner invol-
unfairly started from his seat.
\ smile settled upon the lawyers face
as he held the empty bottle above his head.
He thought he had won his case. But it
vas only for an instant. In the next he
turned CHASTITY pale, his legs trembled, and
he fell into a chair in a drowsy swoon.
The jury brought in a verdict of guilty
without leaving their seats.
1t was evidently a case where the crimi-
nal deceived his counsel.
Why Criminals Do Not Confess.
But having set out on a career of folly
the criminal is not to be expected to ex-
hibit a great degree of wisdom in extricat-
ing himself from the consequences of his
acts. And one of the chief follies which he
commits when summoned to answer to the
community for his misdeeds is to conceal
the real facts of his case from the counsel
whom he selects to defend him. This selec-
ton is not difficult, because in every COM
munity the ablest criminal counsel are well
known and are especially we'll known to
law breakers. But when a person charged
with crime has put himself in relations
with a lawyer he usually hampers the
abilities of his ounse at the outset by de-
c!a?:ag his innocence, even if, as matter
OF fact, he is guilty ''as charged in the in
d~ictment."
That the criminal does not as a rule
state the exact facts of his case to counsel
proceeds from these causes, among others:
He is not intelligent enough to see that it
is for his interest to tell the truth and the
whole truth.
He is suspicious of the entire and abso.
Lutte integrity of even the most famous
counsel.
He is afraid that if he makes a full con-
fession to his lawyer, the latter will, if not
voluntarily, perhaps by an unguarded *
preston. let the precious secret slip.
He fears that the zeal of his counsel will
be q%uenched or his faculties obscured if he
knows that his client is guilty and just
how the criminal act was accomplished.
The natural desire of every man to stand
as high as possible in the estimation of
those with whom he comes in contact op-
crates also in inducing the criminal to de-.
ceive his counsel. Separated from the
world by stone ~walls-seeing, with the ex-
ception Of his counsel, only keepers who de-
spise him and prisoners who regard him as
fto /. nfr.l f11,,, N,,.o ,.c g., -xl- l..
~involuntarily longs for the respect of the su-
perior person who occasionally visits him
in the discharge of professional duty, and
with whom he is permitted to converse in
a separate room at a table, as one citizen
with another, free from the restraint of an
iron barred door.
Owing to these and other unwholesome
inducements, a criminal awaiting trial us,,-
ally lies to his lawyer.
1t is a fatal mistake, one of those blund-
ers that are worse than crimes. Jonathan
Wild, the great thief taker and thief teach
er, was wont to inculcate to his pupils in
larceny the policy Of uniformly adhering
to truth wherever truth was practicable.
His argument was that truth required but
little effort of memory; that it was always
consistent with fact; required no invention
and was therefore easy to the feeblest in
~tellect, and that, finally, a lie was so precious
and valuable a thing that it should neve be
wasted, never brought into use unless alb
s~olutely necessary.
Facts and Theories.
The most ingeniously constructed false
narrative has q larger or smaller spot of
~rottenness and decay on its surface
Rank corruption mining all within
lnfects unseen.
And the rude assaults Of the cross Cxami-
nation by the public prosecutor soon con-
vert the whole ulcerous tissue into a mass
of debris fit only to be shoveled out Of the
courtroom. 1t requires great talent, far
beyond the modicum at the command of
the average criminal, to frame a fictitious
condition of events hat shall consist with
the obvious and undisputed facts that are
connected with any crime whatever.
Every crime is a fact, and every fact that
has ever occurred in the history OF the
world is more or less directly connected
with infinitely numerous contemporary
facts, many Of which are capable of being
used as evidence. 10 suppress real facts
and invent others is, therefore, like taking
away parts Of some delicate and intricate
machine and substituting others. Only the
most skillful Of artificers could reasonably
attempt such u task. and even he would be
apt to come short Of his designs.
The most experienced advocates say that
no false theory Of innocence of acrime can
be supported if the attendant facts hap
pen to be numerously testified to by wit
nesses for the people; therefore. the accused
person, if guilty, should state to his coun-
sci the exact facts of the crime, in order
that they may be toned down, qualified or
explained away. Aside from the rcasona-
bic nature of this theory, the prisoner is
placed toward the court and jury in a more
favorable attitude, since his defense does
not combat the entire truth, but only tends
to shed a different light upon it from that
Of the prosecution.
! There have been during the past two