The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-03
CRIME AND JUSTICE.

The pass to which technicalities anc
Judge-made law has brought the ad-
mfnistration of justice in this country
is shown by some comparative stats
tics presented by the Argonaut. 1t
appears from these that while San
Francisco in the fiscal year 1902-1903
had twenty-seven murders. four justi-
fable homicides and six cases OF man
slaughter. London, with 100000 popu-
lation. had during the same period, but
twenty capital cases. Granting that
San Francisco is the center of 100000
population, that city, gagged by the
London standard of one murder to
every 325, 900 people, has seventeen. AS
to the certainty of punishment, nine
out of London's criminal twenty were
hanged, four committed suicide and
four were adjudged insane, while three
are supposed to have escaped. In San
Francisco, during the same time, eight
out of forty-three We're convicted.
Looking further we find about 12OOO
homicides in the United States during
1893 and less than four hundred legal
executions. The statistics for Great
Britain are not at hand but We may
assume that the ratio throughout the
country is not larger than it is in
London.
The reasons for the differences thus
marked down are many, but the chief
reason lies in the quality of the law
and the administration of the courts. !
In Great Britain there is no bench of |
appeal in criminal cases and the par
doning power of the King, which is !
amenable to the advice of the Home
Secretary, is rarely exercised. To
man accused of murder the verdict of
jury is final; and knowing British
juries as they do, criminals rarely I'M
dertake, in cold blood, to challenge
conviction at their hands In the
United States everything works in the
interests of the accused. He may APP
peal, indefinitely, first to the technicali-
ties which govern the procedure of
trial courts; second to the laws which |
permit a review of his case by appel
The chances are so good,
so automatically good, that we'll
defended criminal will not come to the
gallows. that respect for the rights of a
indeed. 1t is probable that there are t
more homieides to the million in the
United States than there are in any t
European country and we are not sure a
n some Asiatic countries. ii
Whether the defects in American | C
criminal practice can be cured while s
awyers make the laws is an open ques- t
ion. The great preponderance, in leg
siative bodies, of the legal fraternity g
las its good and bad sides. Generally h
Ipeaking the lawyer makes the best z
aw-maker; but it is undeniable that p
he laws he has framed are so open to | 6
litigation on technical grounds and il
hat they have esta blished such COM
lex system of justice, as, to give the i:
awyers plenty to do at good pay. Nat il
rally the profession does not want n
hings made too expeditions for large | c
ees. Appeals and counter-appeals are II
IS stocks in trade; upon technicaIities Il
| feeds as the squirrel does upon its il
oard. How to convert the lawyer p
legislator to work for the good of the t.
tate in matters concerning his own o
velihood4 becomes, therefore, an ante a
edent question of real Importance b
ghen developing any plan, in this 81
ountry, to make law synonymous with d
ustice. t
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