Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-07-15
A TTORNEYS MEET
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS THAT
WIFE DISCRETION BE MADE
A CRIME IN IOWA.
State Bar Association and County At
torneys Hold Annual Conventions in
Des Moines-ottumwans on the Pro-
gram.

Wife desertion will become a crime
IL the report of the law reform com
mittee read at the meeting OF the
Iowa Association of County Attorneys
now in session at Des Moines, is
acted upon by the legislature. County
Attorney w w. Epps of this city is
attending the meeting and Judge M. A
Roberts and E. e. McElroy are both
on the program for the State Bar as
sociation which meets at Des Moines
Friday and Saturday.
The committee calls for stringent
law against the wife deserter with
suitable punishment for the offense.
Further recommendations are the
fayoring of a statute permitting the
district judges to order county charges
sent to the poor farm to save the ex'
pense of keeping them in their homes
A statute giving the county at
torney the right to amend an indict-
ment the same way as now be done
with an information
A statute making it a crime to in
stigate, plan, encourage or counsel a
crime even though that crime be not
actually committed. The statute now
governing this condition applies only
to murder and the resolution calls for
a broadening to include any crime.
Chairman S. T. Mears of Waterloo
also reported other reforms of more
personal nature to county attorneys.
State Bar Association.
One of the chief subjects under con.
sideration at the meeting of the state
bar association will be the recommen
dalton Of the law reform committee
in favor of the abolishment of the
grand jury.
This recommendation Is understood
to have been urged on the committee
specially by Judge Wade of Iowa City
All OF the members concurred in it ex
cept two. The committee has propos
ed no substitute for the grand jury
system.
1t is assumed that in presenting the
report to the convention of lawyers
the committee, through its spokesman
who may be Judge Wade himself, will
present reasons for the recommends
ton, reasons why the grand jury sys
tenn should be abandoned and suggest
what shall take it's place.
o. M Brockett and County Attorney
Miller Of Des Moines, have been Sc
lected by the local bar association tc
appear in discussion of this topic. Mr.
Brockett said yesterday that he had
received only the bare notice that the
committee would recommend the abo
lit1on of the grand jury system and he
had no information relative to the
ideas of the committee with respect to
substitute therefor
Try on Information.
Judge Kline, the Des Moines mem.
Der of the committee, said yesterday
that the committee had not gone into
the subject beyond the recommendation
that the grand jury be abolished SO
that the subject could be discussed in
detail by the lawyers. He supposed
however, that Judge Wade would be
prepared to make an argument in fav-
or of the committees recommendation
Tor which he himself stands
Several states have abandoned the
grand jury system. They try on in.
formation. Instead of an accused per.
son waiting upon action of the grand
jury except upon whose indictment he
cannot be tried as in this state. he is
arraigned directly in the court and
there tried. This, to many Iowa law.
yers, seems to be very Objectionable