The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-06
CRIME, JUSTICE, LAW, LAWYERS
AND LEGAL. PUNISHMENT

Editor Advertiser: In your issue of
the 3rd inst. the article "Crime and
Justice comments or the greater prev
alence of crime and the smaller per-
centage of criminals punished in the
United States than in some older coun-
tries such as Great Britain.
It is natural to expect more crime in
new country than in an old one, as
the restless spirits and those who have
lost caste or reputation naturally drift
percentage of crime in the newer and
more unsettled parts of any country is
greater than in the older and less
changeable districts But outside of
all this. there are defects in the admin
istration of criminal justice in some
parts of the United States, which make
crime more prevalent than in CORES
ponding parts of, say the British EN-
pire. For instance, the absence of
crime and the rapidity and certainty of
punishment in the Canadian Klondike,
as compared to some of the mining
towns in our country, is an object les
son which certainly seems to point to
something wrong.
The fact that appeals are permitted
from criminal convictions with us, in
stead of leaving the convicted felon
only the chance of executive pardon
should it appear he has been wrong
fully punished, is not the only defect.
There is frequently a dread on the
part of both judge and jurors, that
they may be considered tyrannical,
harsh or un-American, unless they are
to forget it is their duty to
let no criminal go UNPUBLISHED, and that
it is the certainty of punishment and
not it's severity that deters crime; and
when they are told by counsel for the
defence, that they. being free Ameri |
cans, should prove their superiority to |
other-and consequently benighted-
nations by giving the criminal the ben
Eft of any reasonable doubt. if jurors,
or. if Judge, the assistance of the most
far fetched legal technicalities that
sophistry can colorably attach to the
case, they are disposed to avoid the
possible unpleasant consequences of
a fellow being to punish
nent, when, if they free him, they may
rain some slight credit for being kind
learted or liberal minded, while it viii
,e forgotten that they have failed in
heir duty (no matter how unpleasant
he task TO free the community from
criminal, and to show other embryo
rirninals what will be the consequent
es if they give way to temptation.
It is unpleasant to punish a fellow |
eing. who has done US no personal in
ury, it is pleasant to have the power I
} punish and to be magnanimous and {
1rgive crime committed against some
Their individual, while at the same {
me we fatter ourselves with the be- {
eff that we are showing our superior
Y to less advanced nations. But
hen, as the counterpart of this, there
the lynching of some person, and it
afterwards discovered he was inno- |
snt, we do not feel we have made
UGH great advances. as We hoped we o
ad. from the nations we thought so J
If our jurors would only remember
is their duty. although their IN I
Ieasant duty. to let no criminal be |
cquitted; and if the judges would en- z
aavor to bring home the crime whore
belongs. and allow no accused per
IN to escape through technicalities,
Mess the technical defence could for
D possible reason be divorced from {
- case, I think we would have a t
-eater per centage of convictions and
smaller percentage of crime.
When a criminal escapes, because y