Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1905-07-17
CRIMINAL LAXINESS
LAWS MADE TO PROTECT The
Are Used TO Shield the Guilty From
the Administration of the Law,
and Clog the Wheels of Courts
OF Justice. JurieS act as Promptly
as the Judges will Permit.

as the Judges will Permit.
In an address before the graduating
class of the Yale law school, June 26,
Secretary Taft severely criticized the ad.
ministration OF criminal law in the Uuit-
ed States, saying in part: 81 grieve for
my country to cay that the administra.
ton of the criminal law in all the states
OF the union (there may be one or two
exceptions) is disgrace to our civiliza.
ton. We are now reaching an age when
we can not plead youth, sparse civiliza-
ton, or newness OF country, as cause
for laxity in the enforcement of law.
"What makes the difference between
the administrator of the criminal law in
England and in this country? In the
first place, while the jury has always
been a sacred and untouched part of the
tribunal constituted to try crime in
England, the judges have always taken
and maintained their part at common
law in the trial of every defendant, and
that part has been, first, the retention of
complete control over the method by
which counsel try the case, restraining
them to the points at issue, and, second,
the power to aid the jury by advising
them how to consider, the evidence aud
expressing an opinion upon the evidence,
leaving, however, to the jury the ulti-
mate decision. Another reason why
English justice still maintains its repu.
tation for certainty Of punishment is the
fact that there are no appeals allowed
from the trial in the first court unless
the Judge presiding shall deem certain
questions Of law OF sufficient importance
and doubt to reserve them to a court of
cases reserved.
"How Is it in our own country? We
find that these constitutional limitations,
adopted centuries ago in tenderness to
the defendant. have been elaborated in
their scope and operation not only by the
courts but also by the legislatures. be.
cause thought to be in the interest of
Liberty. And this has made them great.
er obstacles to the conviction OF the
guilty. The institution Of trial by jury
has come to be regarded as fetish to
euch an extent that state legislatures
have exalted the power of tho jury and
diminished the power of the court in the
hearing of criminal cases. And now
what has been the result in this country?
Since 1885 in the United States there
have been 13l ,951 murders and homi.
cides, and there have been 2.2S6 execu-
tions. In 1885 the number of murders
was 1,S0S. In 1904 it had increased to
8,4S2. The number OF executions in 1885
was lOS. In 1904 the number Was ll6.
This startling increase in the number OF
murders and homicides as compared with
the number of executions tells the story.
"The cure for this growing cancer in
the body polite may be found in statu-
tory amendments. If laws could be
passed either abolishing tho right of
criminal appeal and leaving to the par
doning power, as it is in England, the cor
rection of judicial wrong, or, instead OF
that, if appeals must be allowed, then if
q provision Of law could be enacted by
which no judgment of the court below
should be reversed except for an error
which the court after reading the entire
evidence can affirmatively say would
have led different verdict, ninety.nin
reversals out OF one hundred under the
present system would be avoided. Sec-
ond, if the powers of the court by statute
to advise the jury, to comment and ex.
press its opinion to the jury upon the
facts in every criminal case could be re.
and If the state and the defend
ant were both deprived OF peremptory
challenges in the selection OF a jury,
twenty-five per cent. OF those trials
which are now miscarriages OF justice
would result in the conviction of the
guilty defendant, and that which has be-
come mere game in which the defend
ants council play with loaded dice would
resume its office OF serious judicial in.
vestigation."
The newspaper comment is in the
majority OF cases confined to summarize
ing and approving the points made by
Secretary Taft, but the Brooklyn Citizen
comes 10 the defense of the jury system.
'Judge Taft speaks of the scandal of our
administration, but he fails to
between the parts of the
scandal which are due to unreason on
the part OF juries, and the much more
glaring parts which are chargeabe upon
and over.technical MEM
bers Of the judiciary. AS matters of fact,
The juries everywhere in this codntrv act
as mptlv az the Judges will permit,