Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1896-01-01

around the personal liberty OF the killer
by making an arraignment on paper
very short and swift? Such as for
murder: "A b killed and murdered
G ID contrary to law and against the
peace and dignity OF the state signed
by the foreman OF the grand jury. The
judges OF the court OF criminal APP
peals. Hurt, white and Wilson, said II
was un institutional and so all those
forms prepared by the solons OF the
state stand as a dead letter.
g. Now the remedy. You Will have to
advocate a constitutional amendment
70 the effect that those forms. or SINH
lar ones. shall be law. Then you Will
have TO be prepared for those forms
TO undergo the scrutiny of the supreme
court OF the United States before you
are safely landed In your reform craft.
This Is long way. to what you seem
TO advocate, that II will only take q
breath from the press to blow into
life. You are correct In your theories
but when you come to put them into
practice and harness your ideas with
the panoply of law, you are away
on" All reformers must meet opposi-
tion. David Dudley Field, who has
Just carried his case to the high court
OF heavens chancery for final adjudl-
cation. worked about forty years be-
fore he prevailed on the New Workers.
to reform the meshes of their civil pro-
cedure. and now the statutes OF that
state has stood as model for half OF
the states OF the union.
4. The Judges Of last resort are not
to blame. They do but interpret the
law as it is written. They cannot and
do not trench upon the legislative func.
tion. Our criminal system in America
Is q thing apart. This state OF things
is not confined to Texas, but is abroad
In the land and has philosophical
In fa OFF
universal cause.
8. Let us review other systems OF
criminal law. Wherever the Latin ma
tions administer law the Judge is prose-
cutor and handles with the accused
from start to finish, to try to
VIGOROUSLY renowned for that sys-
tenn which was In vogue when
PLATE tried Christ under the Ro-
man plan, which the world has pro-
nounced judicial murder. In Spanish
Amerlca-in British Honduras even
the law is as simple as the Gazette
would wish It. They elect three officers, |
Judge, n sheriff and a clerk. They |
serve without pay and they try the day |
following, and there Is no such thing as |
objection to evidence. Everything |
goes in, and whether you are TO be |
dashed, or penncd or hung the Judge
says It in few lines the clerk re- |
IL.
No such thing ms reasonable doubt
exists in their procedure. There
is an appeal to the Judge OF the
first instance at the rate OF % cents
per sheet OF large sized paper, and
thence to the legislature, which is all
ways in session. Does this suit the
Gazette Pay for 1t and take It, The
English procedure has been rid of
much of the old time lntricacies and It
remains for America to retain the per-
sonal liberty OF the indlvidual-the live
man-abOve all other systems The
reason above all others Ia
the fact that thr individual Invests in
murder as he would in any other COM
modify. He knows II comes high, but
he goes in prepared to pay for what he
gets, and money makes all people equal
You are cited to the primitive days OF
the Jews when murder was set down Mt
80 much, and when You Invested you
knew there lust what YOU had to pay.
Here the plan 10 not to assess before
hand but wait until IL can be deter
mined by assessment how much can be
squeezed out OF the individual or his
kim or both. The reasoning for this
Is that II means confiscatlon OF prom
erty to save neck and what is of great
er value to the average American than
property, or good wares and merchant
disc, convertible into cash.
Now my dear innocent, young i'm
nulslve Gazette, In conclusion allow me
TO say you are on the right track but !
wait for the millennium for the realiza-
ton OF your fond hopes at reform OF
the criminal laws of America and re-
member when you do get to the end OF
your tether you will see curtailed much
Of the personal liberty which you teach
N your columns.
C. G. CUMMINGS.