The copper era., 1905-04-27

THE great injustice done Lee Hobbs
 by his arrest and trial upon the
 trumped up charge of murder, has led many to ask the pertinent ques-
 tiOn: ''Is there no redress?' It is
 we'll known that Hobbs is q man of ] limited means and also that the ex- pense incident to such d trial is quite l United States no provision has been
 made by law for such cases. In a
 recent copy of Law Notes, published
 in New York, appeared an article
 which fits this case exactly, and is | hereby reproduced in order that the people may more fully understand the necessity of some new legislation | for the relief of such cases:
 "In curious coincidence with the comments which we made last month on the duty of the State to Compen- sate those whom 1t unjustly accuses of crime, there appears in the March number of Everybody'S Magazine an article entitled, "The Victims of Acquittal,' wherein the author strongly advocates d fairer treat ment than the State now aCCords innocent persons who have been sub | feet to the ordeal and expense of a | trial on unfounded criminal charges. | The article is written by MT. Frank | w. Mack, who, from the reporters $ table. has studied the desperate and hopeless face of many an acquitted victim, and who, says the Literary l Digest, in commenting upon the article, is now taking steps to secure ! legislation in New York State along the line indicated. Under our pres cnt laws, says MT. Mack, ''it is fair
 not guilty the public is less en- | frightened and humane than it is toward the convicted criminal" All sorts of Christian institutions are ready to give the ex-cOnvict a lift, but for the eX-suspeCt the conditions are quite different. Directing his attention particularly to the defend ant who has been tried and acquitted on charge of murder, the author says: 'The plight of an acquitted
 murder prisoner is without dupli- cate or parallel in human affairs. The aCquitting verdict of murder the jury itself had no valid ground for existence: that the Judicial machinery had slipped cog; that officials, too careless or too eager. had clutched d victim instead of a Culprit.
 And the freed suspect ac- quilted man?
 Stripped and broken, bruised by foul handling, scared by suspicion. pallid from deaths shadow and scared as by hell-tirc, the acquitted man stands dumbly impotent of moral redress or physical indemnity. And the public, having scouraged him as d viCarious sacrifice, expects him to be thankful because it did not kill him.
 "The State bears alone only one result of the false charge and of the bootlcss trial. It takes over to itself all of the chagrin of it's prosecuting officials at their vain efforts to con- vict. The victim of aCquittal is, however, compelled to share with the State in the money cost of his own trial. Indeed, he is. by grotesque anomaly, party financially to both sides of the action.
 "A man accused of murder con fronts prosecutors who bring to their paid efforts an implacable purpose to build or preserve a personal reputa- tion. So horrid is the charge and so keen is the hunt that the prisoner is driven to his utmost resources. He may no longer rely upon presump- tive innocence, for innocence has been and may again be strangled by circumstantial evidence. He enters upon defense which becomes practically d deadly trial by the ac- cused to prove himself innocent. Along with his name, his pride, and his life. he losses in his own fortune or pittiance, and possibly the posses sionS of his friends.
 At the end d jury foreman de- clares him not guilty and finan- cially, he stands stripped. He has exhausted his resources to keep him. self from being killed, and he stands alone with his rescued life. Through taxation he has borne part of the ex- pense incurred by the State in as saulting it, and the entire cost of it's defense against confessedly wrong ful attack