The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-01-28
ANEEDED REFORM.
Kansas Laws Too Favorable t
Alleged Criminals.

me IoiioWlng interview, or rather aper
was given out by r. B. Campbell, rep
[ resentative from Meade county, at hi
home. just prior to leaving for Topeka
His article. which follows. is deserving
o. the attention of not only the Iegisla
tGre and of the people Of western Kan
sas, but OF citizens generally Mr.. Camp
Dell. in asserting that he will devote hi:
time this winter to bring about the re
form advocated says:
The history of western Kansas show:
! that persons obviously guilty of higi
cries often escape punishment when tn,
/ appl1catiol of the same laws in more pop
uious counties OF eastern and niddi.
Kansas might secure an easy conviction
The difficulty under which welabor anf
the difference between popuDds and {
sparsely populated country is that if con.
v.ction is not secured at the first trta
the accused is properly congratulated by
Els attorneys as having been practically
! acquitted The fact that eleven mer
good and true believe from the evidence
that the accused is guilty avaiIs nothing
The twelfth man, who for any reason
whether corrupt of conscientious, shall
disagree, has substantially defeated the
hest laid plans of the law abiding to pun
ISL notorious criminal
| Given that this is our condition these
obvious reforms are suggested: The frs;
and most salutary is to give the state
the right to a change of venue. This
right is accorded the defense and have
yet to find the man who can give one
good reason why it should be denied the
state. The only answer given (Which, OF
| course, is no reason is that the an
| Gent bill Of rights provided that the ac-
| cused should be tried in his own BALL
wick, that he may have the benefit of
lis good name. In modern times could
| more absurd reason be given?
i;
| one man only need De secured by the de-
Tense on a jury who is friendly to the
accused. or to one of the many attorneys
employed by him, to defeat the ends of
justice.
THE remedy 10 this is obvious. When
| the supreme court of the state finds a
| legal verdict by bare majority of its
| members, and when the supreme court of
! the United States, the court of last resort.
decides questions of greatest Importance
rot only to human life, but to the ma
| tional life as well, it would seem safe TO
| rely on a verdict brought in by nine of
| twelve men in our district courts.
| Originally the safeguard guaranteed
| by the bill of rights was upon the theory
! that the state was strong and the indi-
[ vidual. the accused, was weak. Let us
| see how it is now
In western Kansas the counties pay
the prosecuting attorney $500. nor for
| trying a notorious murderer but for a
| whole years service, and there are no
| rerQuisites. This little 800 attorney or
| perhaps he is no attorney at all. as has
| happened frequently in western KAN
| Sas, represents the state in a most i'm
portant trial. while the accused is repre-
sented by two. or three, or four of the
sharpest criminal lawyers in the state
To show how very weak the accused is
we had a case within the last year in
which this weak and prosecuted individual
was defended by seven lawyers, and
three of them brought from a long dis
lance. This suggests another remedy
| needed. We should have one RESPONSE
bic lawyer to represent the state. and
enc county is too poor to employ such a
one alone. We should have one pros
ecuting attorney I'm each judicial district
in the western one-third of the state
and he should at least be an average
lawyer.
Il understand the difficulty of correct
ing a long established error. The average
answer is made by looking up the age
of the magma charta and then wisely
concluding that If we could live and pros
per under these conditions 700 years it
is not safe to even prune the sacred
plant. The age of an error is no argu-
ment for its continued liberation. Our
qualifications for a legal juror and the
and still worse, the intimidation in many
cases permitted by the court in the exam
ination of the candidate. are enough to
discourage any law-abiding citizen from
hoping for justice. Can we not amend
the law so as to secure twelve intelligent
honest men to try each cause and still
retain the two good old words, good and
true"
NO one will contend that the object
10
criminals, yet~such was their effect in
California, and that state was reclaimed
from vice and anarchy, not by the aid
of the constituted laws. but in spite of
them, in defiance of them. 1t seems
anomalous and certainly calls for reform
when the lawabiding portion of the
community feel impened to violate the
law in order to secure protection from
the criminal classes.
"A case was recently tried in western
Kansas in which eleven men promptly
voted for conviction. The twelfth man
hung the jury, and after twenty-four
hours elaboration of eleven to one the
jury was discharged l took occasion TO
reprove this juror, asking him how he
could vote for acquittal with the evil
dence before him. He answered. II, too.
believe the man guilty, and when the
evidence was all in my mind was fully
made up to vote for conviction How
then. could you vote for acauittal?
asked. l will give his answer in his own
words: We'll. you see. the judge read
that long paper about doubts, and I jes'
dassent vote for conviction The long
paper was. of course. the judges charge
to the jury. ! heard ii, and il was an
able and interesting scientific analysis
of the operation of the human mind in
weighing evidence. and would have been
an aid to any intelligent mind as 10 what
4 49,
confused the feeble mind Of this legally
qualified, but mentally incompetent. juror
that as he stated to me he had doubts
of everything, even of his own exist
ence. The question is. can such miscar-
riage be remedied by law.
"A case was recently tried in Okla
hona in which a man engaged in rob-
bling house killed it's owner while I'm
bed. The murderer was convicted and
he is now asking for a new trial on the
ground that his attorney was intoxicated
and he did not have a fair trial There
is no doubt Of his guilt in the argu-
u,ent for new triai. but to sustain the |
ma jesty Of the law he asked for a new
trial with a sober lawyer to defend him,
He will probably get a new trial and by |
properly manipulating the jury the next |
will be a mistriaI. And finally under the |
law IL will be impossible TO get = third |
jury. and this much prosecuted Individual |
viii escape unless Judge Lynch conveneS |
his court. in which case the accused viii |
get a fair trial without the aid OF the /
technicaIittes OF the law
The best security against mob law is /
to reform our present criminal laws. /
making them simple but effective and /
rot forgetting that the people have rights I
as well as the criminals
Il viii admit the old maxim that IL is i
better that ninety-n.ne guilty men escape 4
than that one innocent man be punished \