The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-17
Best Ways to Make Human Life Safer in Alabama.

der interposes the special plea of mot guilty by reason of insanatys let this is- sue pc tried separately without calling the general plea Where fhis iesue ia tried dn connection with the general plea of Not Guilty" the defendant can in- troduce evidence of all his sayings, hear or trial, together with opinion eyidenoe of experts and non-experts, and almost anv- thing else that skiilful counsel desjre fo inject into the case. making 1t absolute separate the relavent from the irrelavsnt evidence in determining the two cone rs9s issues, so that insanity" has become inc murderers sure city of refuge in too many cases. When these two iss,ies are made up and submitted to the same iurv 1t Is frequently, if not always, the case that nothing Is expected from the fury in favor of the defendant under the special plea, except whatever influence inc evidence adduced under the special plea may have on the minds of the jury Ia justify the defendants conduct when they come to consider the legal evidence of- fered under the general plea The court always charges the jury in these eases that the nature and qualities of these two issues, in most essential respects, differ widely, that the character of the evidence respects different from that admissibIss s under the other, that the rules of law applicable to one in many respects have no application to the other and that the evidence admitted under the special plea when they come to deliberate on the issue made up under the geenral plea. In my humble opinion this is asking too much of the human mind and 1t Is absolutely impossible for the jury to carry out such instructions.
 @ Written charges requested by thu State or defendant should be read by the judge and not taken out by the jury un- ,ho <xf been delivered in writing on request.
 (0 Let It be left to the discretion of the court as to whether or not thero has been a substantial compliance in serving a copy of the venire and indictment upon the defendant or his counsel.
 O Diminish the number of exemptions from jury duty,
 6) Leave 1t to the discretion of the court as to whether or not the jury try. ing any criminal case shall be allowed to disperse at any time before the case Is finally submitted for verdict, and where jurors are kept together and not allowed to disperse during the progress of a trial, Increase the pay of the trying jurors.
 (6) Diminish the number of peremptory challenges by at least one-hah, giving the State and defendant an equal number of challenges.
 Justice is but the expression of the en- frightened conscience of people and fail- ure of conviction in clear cases of guilt betokens either a stolid indifference to the sanctity of an oath. or an intelligence incapable of understanding and weighing the facts on the part of jurors. In the end the responsibility devolves on 1urier to recognize crime when they see 1t aRA the moyel courage and uprightness to st brand 1t by their verdict. An educated citizenship means better juries, and every school house should be a training place for those who are to sit as jurors an( become the strong right-arm of the law In the preservation of human life. WheL those who fill the jury box fully realize the grave responsibility resting upon then and that they are called to discharge tn, highest of civil duties, 1t may not be said, as it was some four hundred years ago: Through tatter'd clothes small vices do
 appear,
 Robes and furru gowns hide all. Plate
 sin with gold.
 And the strong lance of justice hurtless
 breaks,
 Arm 1t in rags, ptgmy's straw doth pierce it.
 The conditions are largely the same to- day and human nature has undergone but httie change, except that there is more gold" with which to plate sin'' and consequently the lance of jusrIcc" more often 'hurtless breaks"
 Of course, the pocket-pistol has a direct ana telling influence upon the death rate In Alabama, and can be placed at the head of our list of deadly diseases. When our beloved State ceases to be "an armed camp in time of peace'' human life will be safer in our midst.
 In Talladega County in the last five years there have been fifteen cases tried where the charge was murder in the first degree, to say pothing of six or eight cases where the indictment charge one of the lower grades of homicide. In the fifteen capital cases the death penalty was fixed in six cases, four were sen tenced to imprisonment for life, one for [ thirty years, one for twenty years, and there were three acquittals. The death penalty was inflicted in four cases. one was commuted and one reversed. Alex. M. Garber