The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-11-15
Common Sense from the Bench.

i'm which the church courts had any
! direct concern.
Common Sense from the Bench.
On recent Wednesday i'm remote
West Virginia mountain region an aged
woman and two children, a son and
daughter were most brutally murdered
by man who had been reared in the
household as an adopted son. The crime
was committed in the morning; it was
discovered at noon; the murderer was
captured by a shoriff's posse in the af-
ternoon and that night was put for
safe keeping in the county Jail Court
| CHANGED to be in session at the time,
and to allay the disposition of the pop
u!acc to resort to lynch law the Judge
of the district. Hon. Reese Blizzard.
gave assurance that the murderer, who
i'm the meantime had confessed, should
have a speedy trial. The case went be-
fore the grand jury Thursday morning;
an Indictment was returned Immediate
ly and by Saturday the murderer had
! been duly arraignad, tried, convicted
and sentenced to death. Notwithstand-
/ ing this apparent haste the accused
man received every consideration due
TO him under the law and the verdict
represented obvious and recognized JUS
tiCc.
The circumstances Of this somewhat
| remarkable case naturally attracted
widespread attention; so much SO that
the Ifttsburg Times sent q staff rcpre-
/ t,
ginia town where the trial was held to
| Interview the Judge ana thus to Sc
c're his ideas on the propriety of such
swift dispatch Of court business. Judge
Blizzard is a self-made young man, ~
years old, serving his first year on the
| Dench, having been elected by ZAP plur-
| ality as Republican, in a district
normally Democratic by 1000 Some
things said by him in this interview
az" OF general interest. For example:
look upon a court as business cs-
| tabllShcd by the state for the welfare of
| lhe people. | conduct court as l would
conduct any other business entrusted to
me, There is a lot of assumed dignity
in many courts that is sham. My court
starts like mill At S o'clock in the
morning we begin business. If witnesses
ana jurors are not on hand they get no
pay, / call no one at the front door of
| the court house. | hold no iurieS to
| wait for lawyers to get ready to try their
cases AS Il result we have cleaned up
IN" dockets in about One-fOurth the time
| heretofore customary. ! have fifteen ses-
sions or court year in the district. These
sessions used to run two or three weeks
| Now they finish in three or four days. 1t
costs the state, county and clients about
500 day every day court is in session
IN thlS district. Looking upon a court
as a purely business body / aim to save
as many of those $500 days as ] can. 1t
takes more clerks to keep up with the
| work, but three or four clerks are cheap
| er than a couple of hundred witnesses
ana jurors. | run court from to -
o'clock and from / to $50 or g. draw
| the line on the attorneys as well as on
the others, and we do not consume time
talking about nothing. | have noticed
! that the men in my district who pay the
costs of courts work long days, and waste
no time while they are at work This be-
| ing the case | see no reason why those
who are employed by these men at carry
| ing on the courts should not earn their
money in full days of honest attempts
The legislature has been continually
struggling with some method of cheapen-
Ing the enormous court expenses re-
| turned from each session. But that is not
the place to attempt retrenchment. The
matter is all in the hands of the courts
themselves. l hold that a machine that
costs $500 day to sun should not run at
public expense a day longer than is nee
cssary.
AS to the murder trial mentioned
above, the judge sad
The prompt ana speedy trial Of the man
Morgan hope will have a wholesome cf-
rect. l think delay is one of the most
prolific causes of lynchinG i'm the south
Perhaps the blood Of the south is hotter
than that OF the more conservative
states farther north. But, leaving that
out of consideration, so many murder
trials drag along with intolerable slow
| ness that jurieS are worn out and they
| lose interest in the case. Then they be-
gin to seek means to get rid of their
tasks as speedily az possible, and any
kind of a verdict is agreed to that will
give them freedom at the earliest mo-
ment. Judges lack in discretion in the
matter, permitting lawyers to create un-
necessary delay, wearing out witnesses
and clouding the issue to no purpuse by
meaningless VCrbiage ana obscure points
| What the state wants Is not an cXposi-
tion of idleness under the mock name Of
dignity, but justice. The judge should
possess iirmnCSS, and such a sense of fair
ness that the prisoner is given all pOsSi-
bic Just chance to escape the terrible pen
atty that follows conviction of murder
If time is needed by the accused to pre-
pare his case, or to obtain witnesses, cv-
cry right should be granted him. Fair
ness is an 2ttribute of the law. But
there is a difference between needed time
and the uelays that are common tOler-
ate no nonsense. IL a witness is sum-
moncd to my courts and fails to come /
put an attachment i'm the hands of the
sheriff and have him bring the Indifferent
fellow, If public interest can be aroused
to demand that courts become what they
are intended, a business adjunct of the
state for preservation of peace and the
protection Of society lynchings will be
few, because tho courts will leave no Oc-
CasiOn for such summary justice. The
people naturally respect the law, but they
do not respect the laws delay,
other judges have talked in this
same wholesome strain, but inasmuch
as this judge practices what he
breaches his words doubly merit our
| respect There can be no doubt that
Judge Blizzard has fixed upon the SOW
ereign remedy for lynch law and for
| much other lawlessness beside. All
honor to him!
Governor Lowndes of Maryland an
| nounces that he wants Senator Cor
| mans place. What is the matter with
! q l.. v.Ig, l.