The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1893-05-25
Guilty or Not Guilty.


Guilty or Not Guilty.
There always seems to be something
of innate injustice in the working of the
law by which the chances of criminal
are bettered when he asserts his inno-
cence and stands his trial, although his
guilt is known to himself and believed
by most others, instead of frankly con-
Tossing his wrong and throwing himself
upon public justice tempered by public
mercy. The sentencing of man who
has acknowledged his fault and offered
to bear voluntarily the full conse-
quences of it, with only such appeal for
lenience as the circumstances will war
rant, is always painful occurrence.
And it certainly is regrettable that this
course should not be made so much
more desirable for the accused than a
persistence in denial that he would uni
formly prefer it, if he have left in him
any sparks of manhood and any desire
for reform and future usefulness. If
the arrangement of our laws is to serve
it's intended purpose at all, it should
encourage a frank acknowledgment
rather than policy of adding perjury
to the infraction Of the laws that has
gone before. Yet so little place is there
left for the repentant that counsel
would usually advise him to stand his
trial and accept the double chance Of
an entire escape or verdict carrying
with it u lighter sentence, than that
which would follow confession and &C
ceptance of the consequences of mis-
doing.
This is no criticism upon the courts
or the bench. The judges lean gener-
touched by the pathOs of ruined life
which to build anew. They seldom,
ment that hardens pity, fail to open Op-
portunity as far as the law has left it
within their discretion. But they them
selves are bound by the law and its pre-
scribed penalties for well defined Of
lenses. Given culprit who has VIC
lated it, who is conscious of his great
default, who would spare the public the
cost of a trial and keep his own cOn-
science free from the added guilt of
swearing himself innocent when he
knows the contrary, and it too often
happens that there is a punishment
fixed for manhood itself. 1t is an inter
esting and pathetic time when the
prisoner has to respond to the question,
Guilty or not guilty" Upon him is
thrown the burden of admission or de-
NAL. By the justice of the law no harm
can come to him, If he protests his limo
cence, until his Otfense is proved. In
the vast majority of cases it is probably
to his interest to do that; to cast behind
him his last remnant Of respect for
truth and desire to be honest with HIM
self, and throw himself upon the lottery
of the courts. Weighing only the
chances of the future in the light Of
self-interest, the average result to him,
ranging from absolute acquittal and es
cape to the imposition after conviction
of the heaviest sentence permitted by
the code, he would probably plead not
guilty. The way of confession and re-
pentance, which is the way pointed out
by all religious teaching and which is
cOunseled by the deepest impulses Of
good that are left to him, is the way
of heaviest suffering to him. 1t would
seem that, without making the way Of
the transgressor an easy one, there
should be greater advantage than
there is in the plea of guilty where
guilt exists. and manful submission
to the demands of outraged law.-St.
Paul Pioneer Press.
Peter Jackson, the pugilist, has taken
a. No. ~ IN, hn 9th