The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-01-21
PRICE FIVE GENTS.
people, and, as their representatives, you
should reflect their will.

| should be enacted at this session with
| reference to both criminal and civil mat
tiers. The constitution and laws wisely
provide that when debts are created by
counties and other municipalities, an
annual tax shall be levied and collected
to pay the interest and create q sinking
fund for their liquidation. 1t is essen
| tai and 1t is the purpose of the law that
TINS money shall be scrupulOusly devoted
| TO these objects, so that the faith of the
municipalities will be kept, the people
protected against double payment and the
bonds held by the state and other in
yestors be redeemed at maturity, but i'm
| some counties and cities the commits
si0ners courts and city councils wrong
| FULLY divert these funds to the payment
OF salaries and other general indebted
ness. A penal statute should be passed
adequately, furnishing members of such
courts and councils for such diversions
anu county and city treasurers for honor
ing warrants drawn for such pur-
poses. The. state can not suffer
her municipal securities to he
come tainted with dishonor and
| the safeguard suggested will judiciously
supplement- existing law. For more than
u. quarter OF a century it was the law
OF TINS state, announced repeatedly by
ahe higher courts, that the testimony of
deceased witness at former trial of
criminal charge is admissible in eyi-
uehce at subsequent trial of the same
case and may be proven by another Der-
son who heard the testimony. This sal
utary doctrine, thoroughly accepted and
necessary to the suppression of crime,
was recently denied by a majority of the
Judges OF the court of criminal appeals,
upon grounds heretofore urged without
success. In the case of Cline they held
that examining trial evidence taken be-
fore magistrate where the defendant
was present and had an opportunity to
cross-eXamine the witness is not a depo-
sltion in the contemplation of article 814
of the Code of Criminal Procedure. which
allows the deposition to be read in evil
dence when the witness has since died
or removed from the state or is out of
the state and for other reasons, and that
II 1t were deposition within the mean
ing of that article it could not be read
because the law is void as cOntravening
section 10 of the Bill of Rights, declaring
that an accused shall be confronted with
the witnesses against him. In substance
and effect it is held that article S14 is
unconstitutional and void Judge Hen
lderson, in his dissenting opinion, says:
1T has become the settled law of the
land, and to uproot or destroy it, it oc-
ours to me. will be fraught with grievous
results. This construction Of the con-
stitution, in connection with the rules of
evidence. has the sanction of great law
yers and great jurists, both in England
and in this country, whose decisions form
an unbroken current in support of the
rule we have adopted 1t has been found
efficacious in the past, enabling courts
to preserve and perpetuate testimony
against great criminals and bring them
to justice. 1t is comparatively easy
recently, after an offense has been COM
mitted, to bring the witnesses together
and on a preliminary hearing procure
their testimony and reduce it to writing;
and in such case the witness has con-
fronted the defendant and he has had
the privilege of a cross-examination upon
all the points of the witness testimony;
and to hold that after the witness has
so testified, if, on the next day, he Should
die and the state should not be permit
ted to use his evidence, taken under all
of the formalities and sanctity of the
law, would be to authorize, in many
cases, the escape from punishment of per-
sons guilty of crime. 1t would be rest
a very brittle thread and it would be an
invitation to criminals themselves to dis
pose of the testimony against them.
There is too much at stake in the con-
servation of life and property to deal
lightly with this subject If the con-
trary rule should prevail and it shall be-
come the law CO this state that exam
llllS tlIti cNlucuCc VI u ueCcuScu WltuCSS
or parol evidence given by witness OH
Il former trial of the case, said witness
having since died, can not be used on a
subsequent trial against defendant, it
will not only revolutionize our criminal
Jurisprudence but it will be letting down
the barriers in favor of criminals, when
our code requires Our laws to be literally
construed, in order to suppress crime and
bring offenders to justice. If it was i'm
portant in the early days to preserve this
character of evidence, it is equally as i'm
portant now"
This is not exaggeratiOn of the effect
of this decision. 1t seriously impairs the
right of the state to perpetuate testi-
mOny. 1t lays dangerous premium
upon absconding witnesses and the wick
led destruction of testimony. Wide
reaching and revolutionary, it affects vi
tally the administration of public justice,
and since it can not be remedied by leg
slation, its operation should be promptly
arrested by an amendment to the constl-
tuition. For reasons heretofore stated,
it is recommended that provision be made
to render effective the constitutional pro-
hibition against railway consolidation and
; that the practice by railway companies
of issuing free passes, except to their Of
ficers and employees, be forbidden. The
recommendation of the commissioner of
the general land office that the titles of
| DOna nue. DuTcHlSeTS OF ldnuS uIluer lne
twenty-second section of the act of 1887
and amendments. now in good standing,
; be validated is approved and Endorsed.
The live stock sanitary commission, which
: has rendered most valuable service to
the stock interests of the state, recon-
! mends in its report some changes in the
law creating the commission. 1t is par
} ticulary necessary that the law be
amended so as to remove any doubt that
; the commission may establish quarantine
, lines from November 1 to February
, 1 instead of May 10, and that
: the commission be given sufficient
) funds to enforce the regulations.
Mob violence, involving defiance
, of public authority and possible innO-
cence of the victim, is indefensible in a
, government or order and written. laws,
however revolving the crime sought to
, he avenged. While in the end much
! must be left to thoughtful citizenship.
, laws should be passed requiring the re-
! moval from office of any sheriff, or con-
stable who permits the execution of any
? person by n mob in his county or pre-
) cinct, and any county in which such shall
T occur and in which any of its citizens
shall participate should he made liable to
| the state in the sum of $4,000, to be