The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-03-08
SCOTLAN ND'S VERDICT.
From the New York Tribune.


The verdict in the Ardlamont murder
trial strongly calls attention anew to
the differences between judicial pro-
,edure in Scotland and that in Eng
land and the United States From the
American point of view nothing could
be more unsatisfactory than a verdict
Of mot proven. 1t is impossible to
imagine such a conclusion of an inn
portant trial being for moment toler-
ated here, by court or public, any more
than the adopting of the French theory
that the accused is to be deemed guilty
until he can prove his innocence. Yet
it is unhesitatingly accepted by the
Scotch, an eminently logical and ju-
dicial minded people, and the render
ing of such a verdict in this latest and
most sensational case provokes no dis
satisfaction with the law, nor any de-
mand for change of procedure. 1t is
an impressive example of the power of
long continued custom and of the wide
divergence of views held by men of
equal intelligence and sense of right.
The mot proven verdict is by no
means, however, the only popularity
Of the Scotch trial system. At the very
beginning of cause there is no coron-
er's inquest nor public examination of
Quoted in private by the magistrate
and official prosecutors-private prose-
cution being, by the way, unknown.
save in most trifing cases. The trial
must then come properly on, and un-
less the prisoner be brought to tria
and the trial concluded within 10 days
after his committal, he if entitled ito
be set free forever from all question or
process for the crime with which he is
charged" In the trial itself the public
prosecutor opens his case without any
preliminary speech making, and at the
end the prisoner or his counsel has the
final suming-up and appeal to the jury.
The jury consists of fifteen persons,
the verdict of majority of whom is
sufficient to determine the case; and, as
already mentioned, if the jurors are
not legally convinced of the prisoners
guilt nor satisfied that he is innocent
they may render verdict of mot
proven" This last leaves the accused,
of coarse, morally under a cloud for the
rest of his life, for, though he was not
convicted he was not able to esta blish
his innocence. The wretchedness this
may entail was strikingly portrayed by
the late Wilkie Collins in one of his
romance probably without the slight
est exaggeration.
While the one feature of Scotch
trial can never be commended to the
American judicial system, there are
others that might be to advantage
adopted here. The requiring a speedy
trial is one. The long delay in criminal
cases in our courts has often caused
much scandal, and has doubtless inn
paired the prestige of the judicial adj
ministration. Considering the trouble
we often have to get satisfactory
jury OF twelve, the enlargement OF the
number to fifteen is hardly to be re-
garded with favor; but it is at least an
open question whether the ends of JUS
tice would not be better served by max
ing a majority or a two-thirds majority
verdict sufficient How Monson, the
defendant in the case just closed would
have Jared in an American court, IS a
matter of eurioas il inconceivabie spec
ulation. He almost certainly would
not have been tried so promptly. and
the delay would have been painful to
him, at least il innocent. and vexatious
to lovers of justice IN general Yet in
the end there would have been ver-
dict OF positive acquittal instead OF the
indeterminate thing that has now
doomed him to a Lifetime of gloom
and suspicion