The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-08
LEGISLATURE SHOULD CREATE
A STATE BOARD OF PARDONS
Says DR.. kngsbury. Some Views of Great Lawyers
the System of Trial
by Jury.
by Jury.

Il
ablest, most learned and conscientious
Christian lawyers of the State, men like
d.. Marcellus V. Lanier, of Oxford ii
they can be found. The One-Man Power
has had full sway, and long enough in
North Carolina. 1t is a strange anomaly,
and should not be tolerated by a free
and enlightened people. This is the
opinion of citizen not lawyer, but of
the great mass of people. The criminal
laws must be very defective, very in
sufficient or there could not be so much
failure to render justice, and protect So
clety against crime, and to invite the
interposition of the One-M irregulari-
ty. Mercy is good, but it may be sorely
abused. Law is important, but it may
be rendered contemplate. Justice should
be equal but permanent. Let justice be
done though the heavens fall. Fiat
justitia ruat coelum. If the criminal
laws are on the side of criminals and
crime, surely they should be amended.
be strengthened. Some of the States
have Boards of Pardon and they must
be better than the exercise of negation
of practice, and the proclamation OF
immunity on the part of one man, thus
seriously interfering with the decision
of courts. Has the trial by jury become
a farce a nullty? Is it absurd to re-
quire twelve men to agree in order to.
decide? Is it right to put stolid igno-
rance, illiteracy and corruption in the
jury box? Whatever ~.Ae cause, it is a
fact that the more intelligent people are
losing confidence in the courts, and hold
them in much less esteem than former
ly. | heard a Solicitor say some years
since that it was impossible to get JUS
tice in New Hanover county in any case
in which a white man was concerned if
negroes were on the jury, or vice versa
Crime is steadily increasing, and the
laws are less effective justice languishes.
and the hope of pardon on the part of
criminals abounds. / heard it said at
once when it was known that Wilcox had
been sentenced to thirty years in the
penitentiary, that he would be probably
pardoned by some Governor before five
years had elapsed. People do not rely
upon courts now for protection as they
have done in the past, prior to the grea;
war. Governor Jarvis, have understood,
said that the petitions for pardons gave
him more trouble, engaged more of his
time, than all of the other duties of his
high and responsible office combined. The
lowest criminal, if he have family con-
nections and friends, can easily get UP
a petition for pardon. There are people
iE every community who stand ready to
sign any sort of petition. 1 heard of
one fellow who signed for both sides.
Society has some rights as well as law
breakers and villains. Pulling sentiment
ality ought not to shape public sentiment.
or to cause the scales of justice to be
altered or lowered. The murdered vic
tim lies in his grave, or the cruelty out
ragged woman bears the scars of violence
upon her person. while the remorseless
william evokes snivelling pity, and excitcs
the compassion and intervention of pow
er. A Board of Pardons would be
protection for society, would not hold out
false hopes or produce a relaxation OF
the vigor of the courts. l would like,
for one old citizen, to see the experiment
made. If not that, let the One Man
Power disappear. North Carolina should
advance and not retrograte in the duty
of administering law and justice.
Many singular, even marvellous opin-
ions are held in this world, and even in
the United States. 1t has come to pass
progress and extreme lust for gold, that
war-grim, CHASTITY, infernal-is regarded
with favor by many religious people, as
a great means for the dissemination of
the principles and mercies of the glorious
Gospel of the adorable Son of God, the
Prince of Peace. | read lately an anec-
doate that illustrates: A Yankee preach
err discussed the blessings of war be-
dental blessing or benefit, and so valu-
able as to be pursued. In the audience
was that fine humorist and gifted man
of letters. the late Charles Dudley War
ner, of Connecticut. He said to that
very simple preacher: Il felt like rising
in the congregation and saying that in
consonance with the views presented he
moved to postpone the Christian religion
to more convenient season" That
shouter for war as a Christian civilizer
and friend of humanity, must have been
like Vances catfish story and the negro
boy-"Golly, how he has swunk.' l get
the story from the Century for January.
A sort of fetch has grown around trial
by Jury 1t was excellent once, and In
the early days when it originated. 1t
was indeed a bulwark of freedom and
safeguard to citizens or subjects to a
considerable extent. But it was often
much abused. and juries became in fact
the oppressors of the people, as l can
show, and the enemy of right and JUS
tiee. Shakespeare and Dickens have
juries. Some one wrote,
1.-The lovely jury sits beside thee
Take the good the gods provide thee.
sharp, scholarly author--a Kentuck-
ien-wrote a quarter of century or
sore since
I'VE often hear of the majesty of the
law'-behold it incarnated in that jury!
"a lion in an ASS skin. Themis dis
guising herself as old Granny Gray! If
Ignorance is so necessary a, qualification,
(for juror would not school of ig-
norance be useful for making Judges
of law as well as of fact'?" 1t is no,
generally held. l think, that iuries arc
judges of law. but of fact Lord Erskine
held that juries are judges, of law as we'll |
as of fact. Mr. Pulteney, very ceIc-
brated English lawyer, said,
For twelve honest men have determined |