The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-02-19
NEED Of NEW
LEGISLATION
Dole Would Save
Work for
Jury.
Recommends Change in
Law for Minor
Grimes.
Report of Attorney General Is
Made to Gov. Dole-The
Recommendations.

of the work in his department up to
January LIST, when his connection with
the Office was ended, has been submit
ted to Governor Dole.
| Mr.. Dole makes several important
recommendations, one of which is that
all officers of the government be bond
ed, the second to do away with a grand
jury in the consideration of petty Of
lenses. He refers also to the Osaki
Mankichi case and to the great increase
in the amount of crime in the Territory
within the past eighteen months At
tention Is paid also to the various en-
bezzlements.
Referring to the need of new Iegis-
lation Mr.. Dole says:
I'm this connection I again wish to
recommend legislation which seems to
me matter of great public import
ance. The Fifth Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States de-
clares that: No person shall be held
to answer for a capital or otherwise
Infamous crime unless upon present
ment or indictment of grand jury, ex-
cept in cases arising in the land or ma
val forces, or in the militia, when in
actual service in time of war or public
danger 1t has been settled by numerL
GUS judicial decisions that any offense
which may or can be punished by loss
of civil rights, or by imprisonment at
hard labor for a term exceeding one
year, is an infamous offense. Various
offenses classed as misdemeanors under
the Republic and Monarchy and ordi-
narily punished by small fine or
short term of Imprisonment, can, un-
der our laws, be punished by imprison-
ment at hard labor not exceeding two
years with loss of civil rights. This
puts them beyond the jurisdiction of
district magistrates. A boy who steals
a pocketful of fruit or a handful of
cigars, must either go UNPUBLISHED and
permitted to do so again and again !
with impunity until he is educated into |
the habits of thief, or else he must |
be indicted by a grand jury and tried |
by a petit jury. Busy men who are |
public spirited enough to willingly sac
rifice their time to the government |
when necessary, complain, and justly
complain, that it is an imposition to be
compelled to sit day after day and
week after week, hearing these trivial
cases. Yet, with the law as it now
exists, there is no help for them. 1t is
almost equally burdensome upon wit
nesses. 1t congests the court calen-
oars in Honolulu, and even in other
almost impossible for men litlgating
their civil rights on the law side Of the
court to obtain hearing. 1t adds
greatly to the burdens of the judiciary
and the Attorney Generals department,
and it unnecessarily and largely in
creases the expenses of both of these
1 believe it is also an
injustice to person accused of minor
offense to set this unwieldly and pom
jerous machinery in motion against
lin, when he might, at a comparatively
small cost of time and trouble, have [
prompt trial before a district magis-
-rate, with the right of appeal to jury
L ne desires II 1t Is luI luSI luOI z al
Injustice from the fact that, as the law
now stands, even though he is fined
,nly dollar or imprisoned only for a
lay, he can never vote or hold office
Unless he is pardoned by the Governor
also believe that the public is better
protected from crime where justice is
speedy and sure and punishments are
light, than where 1t is :
slow, expensive and uncertain, and the s
offender, if convicted is more severely =
lealt with. 1 recommend a careful I
evision by the legislature of the pun
shments prescribed for minor ofenses.
made this recommendation two years
go. 1 believe the present legislature +
will be alive 10 the public necessity in
his matter" Q