The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-10
By Judge A. H. Alston, Super
 numerary Judge for the State.

numerary JuoRe Tor the State. To The Montgomery Advertiser:
 Your favor of recent date requesting me to give you my views as to the proper remedies to be applied to prevent the fre- quency of homicides in Alabama, is re- ceived. It Is a subject that has addressed itself to my consideration for quite a while and am sure 1t has to every other judge in the State, The number of hom- icides that occur in Alabama each year Is startling, and shows that human fife is often held to be of little value.
 Our laws governing the trial and pun ishment of this offense are ample, in fact I see only a few minor defects in them, nor how they could well be changed to more completely guarantee fair and im- partial trial, such as every citizen of the State is entitled to and should have In the short time that l have been on the bench -four yearsl my observation is that juries, as rule, convict when the evidence Is sufficient to justify a con- viction: In four years there have been sid d, thirty-seven defendants charged with murder in the first degree, to say nothing of those charged with the lesser degree of homicide. Of the thirty-seven defendants, tried for murder in the first degree, thirty-two have been convicted three acquitted and two mistrtals. As these trials have been in different DOT tions of the State, l conclude that the juries of Alabama regardless of any sec- tio1 as a rule conscientiously discharge thelr duty. It is true that they often bring in verdicts for the lower degrees of homicide and impose light punishment, Which in sof1e cases should be done 1 mention these facts to show that the tault IS not in the Jaw. nor in the jury box.
 We frequently hear it said that the law is too technical and the Supreme court reviews too technically the cases appealed to it. To this proposition I can not agree. A technical trial. or review of the case. simply means that all trials in- volving the tights. liberty or life of man should be strictly conducted by the rules of law, that are well established and of long standing. To deviate from these certainly. I do not think the Supreme Court is too technical in any of the opin- icns that l have read and while I am unable to say what percentage of ~evers- had only one case reversed out of thirty two convictions, Washington vs. The State) or course. an appeal has not been t. ken in every case. If So the per cent age of reversals might have been larger.
 To prevent the larger number of felO- lious homicides that annually occur in Alabama, I suggest too remedies: First, suppress the habit of carrying concealed weapons, for in my judgment this is the most prolific source of all others of hom-
 
 cuse for carrying concealed weapon, md that Is when a man has good cause to apprehend an attack, but this law IS violated very often and no violation of the 'Iw goes unpunished as frequently as the defendant charged with carrying a con- cealed weapon The penalty is severe, st.d judges in charging grand juries call special attention 10 tt, yet small per centage of those who violate the law in this respect are indicted and a large per centage of those who chance to be ln- dicted escape conviction although the so- ncitor bravely and ably prosecutes them. Public sentiment must be educated to the point of cvadeu.ning this practice. Men of high social standing are frequent ly guilty of 1t, which of course lends re- spectability to an offsnse that is & mem ace to society. Until this practice re- ceives the condemnation of public sent in,ent and a mau is made to feel that ne loses cast socially when convicted of this offense, we Can hardly hope to suppress 1t. So abhorrent is 1t to the law that it Is put on a footing with felonies so far as allowing any discretion to be exercised by grand juries in finding indictments In my opinion an increase of punishment will not supply the remedy. for the pun ishment is already severe, the fine being not less than $50 nor more than $500. In addition to the fine the court has the