The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-10
FINES ARE NOMINAL.
Some Peculiar Rules About Payinr
Them in the United States court.

Some Peculiar Rules About Paying
Them in the United States Court.
1t is not generally known that in many
criminal cases in the United States dis
trict court, the fines imposed along with
other penalties Of service in Jail or in the
penitentiary are merely nominal and in
most OF this class of cases are never
paid
For instance in the case Of a
party convicted of retailing whisky
without United States license, or
OF working in an illicit distil-
lery, the accused if found guilty may
be sentenced to serve one month, or
year iniail, according TO the nature Of the
onense, in addition to which he may be
fined 500 and costs of court or perhaps
as high as $500. The party 50
sentenced, can, after serving his regularly
imposed term in the Jail or the peniten-
tiary, serve thirty days longer in lieu of
paying the fine, no matter what its
amount and upon making a pauper an
daV1t and stating on oath that he is una
pie 70 pay the line and costs, no matter
what its amount, he is released. Many
fines are disposed Of in this way.
The rule is similar one in felony cases
where the criminals are sent to the
United States penitentiary and required
70 pay tine in addition A pauper AFT
davlt relieves the party Of the payment of
the fine after he has served thirty days in
addition to the prescribed sentence of the
court
A good feature of the conduct of court
business for the district attorney and the
marshal however, is that there is no
such thing as tnsolvent costs. The fees
Of each of these officers are always paid
by the United States, the fines rarely
ever being sufficient in any district to pay
them. The district attorney gets a fee of
- for every criminal case brought into
the court and $50 for each case that he
takes before jury He has entire con-
troll OF the criminal docket, much more so
IMAM does the prosecuting attorney in a
state court, and the manner in which the
docket is called is entirely at his bidding
He has the right to call up any case he
chooses at any time during the session
and have it tried by the
court He can, If he so desires, pigeon
hole an Indictment and let it lay away
Tor years before bringing it to the courts
attention. This, however, is rarely, if
ever done, unless there be some good
cause for it.
Maj. w. T. Gary the present district
attorney for this district, has been in
Office now about year. He has made an
excellent record during that time, and
GiOueu nc udS udu large NUN Der OF
criminal cases to handle in the three di-
visions of the district he has never lost
but two cases on which he has gone to
juries for verdict. One was in Macon
and the other here at this term. The
case here which resulted in
a verdict for the defendant
was that of John Badderford charged
with retailing without license, and it
was lost more on account of the nature of
the evidence rather than any lack of
proof to convict. 1t seems that the char
acter OF the witnesses against the de-
PENDANT were impeaChed They knew
that Badderford was retailing without a
United States license some months before
the case was made. Nothing. however,
was said about it until Badderford prose-
cuted some of the witnesses in the state
courts for sheep stealing when they re
ported the matter of Badderford's selling
without license to the United States au-
thorities. The case was clearly one of
spite, and while the evidence showed that
Badderford had no license at one time,
the jury brought in q verdict for &C
quittal.
Maj. Gary has, however. requested the
court to instruct verdicts for defendants
in number of cases which he has had in
charge where the evidence was not suf-
ticient to warrant him in consuming the
time of the court He has in some cases,
too, requested a suspension of sentence
where offenses committed were small,
carrying with them no moral turpitude,
and where the offenders, when the mat
tiers were explained to them, have admit
ted their guilt. Mai. Gary has shown re-
markable efficiency in the performance of
his duties, and his efforts will commend
themselves to all who are familiar with
his work