The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-03
One Reason for Lynchines.

OAG AGa10A A0I
One Of the interesting reports made to
the Georgia bar association, which has
been in session this week at Atlanta, was
that of the committee on Jurisprudence
and law reform, OF which Judge Hillyer
was chairman. Among the subjects dealt
with in the report, was that of lynching.
Among other things the committee said
The startling statement has been made
IN the public press, and nowhere denied,
that in many groups of say a score Of
. counties in the United States there are
more homicides than in all of Scotland,
or in all of England, or even all of
/ Prussia. Throughout the United States
we have these fancy notions by which,
/ when a criminal is on trial, the Judge
+ is a cipher and the jury is left in the
/ dark, whilst the criminal is the only
/ man in the court house who has any rights
/ that are sacred. Our civilization has
/ gone too far and has overdone itself in
/ these matters. We deplore the lynchings
| that occur so frequently, and are growing
more and more frequent throughout the
| land. The reason, or at least one great
reason, why lynchings occur is because
/ there is a distrust, and constantly grow
| ing distrust, in the promptness and Ell
| cheney of the law. Justice is one of the
| innate principles of the human heart, and
! public Justice will assert itself Youmay
/ fill your newspapers with proclamations
and crowd your thoroughfares with the
/ sheriff's officers and militia, but YOU will
never stop lynchings until the public is
given TO understand that the Judge and
| Jury have got power TO execute sure
and immediate justice. In a thousand
ways the evils here mentioned are very
| great, the remedy for them requires cour-
age, as well as prudence. moderation and
wisdom, but, like the evil, the remedy
should be radical and complete"
There is a great deal of truth in the
FOREGOING extract. 1t will not, and can
not, be denied that criminals escape pun
ishment through theIlaw's delay. tits Of
frequent occurrence that criminal cases
that should be tried promptly are put off
from one term of court to another until
the witnesses for the state are dead or
out of the jurisdiction of the court.
When it is practically impossible for the
accused persons 10 be convicted, however
guilty they may be, the cases are tried
and the defendants acquitted.
1t is expected, of course that the attor-
neys for accused persons will use every
legitimate means to secure the acquittal
of their clients. They are not to blame
for seeking continuances on one pretext
and another. The blame rests upon the
! easy going judges, who are anxious to &C
commodate members of the bar whose in
ffuence they may desire to secure reap
pointmeut, or who are ever ready to
shirk work by putting off cases on very
| slight pretexts. This criticism is not, of
course, true as to all judges, but it is as to
many of them.
The people see that justice is delayed,
and finally defeated, and hence they cease
to trust the courts. They prefer to meet
out justice themselves so as to be sure
that criminals will not escape punish
menJ.
There is no doubt that the courts are
to very great extent, responsible for
lynchings. They do not do their whole
duty. .rs- ss.
In all the states the law should be so
amended as to require the judges to
hold special terms of court for the trial of
Oi4CuutIo CudIg6Q Win buOS6 CIluleS IOF
which lynching is common. These
| special terms might increase the burdens
ofutaxpayers for awhile, but the effect of
them would be TO check crime, and
therefore the taxpayers would be
benefited eventually. There is nothing
that would do so much to check crime
and put an end TO lynchings as the prompt
trial of those accused of criminal acts
The people would depend wholly upon
the courts for the punishment of crimi-
nails if they had confidence that the Grim
inals would be punished.@ Let the legis-
latures of the southern states take up
this matter and provide for the swift ad-
ministration of justice, and then the peo-
pie will have no occasion to defend them
selves against the charge that they en-
courage mob law.