The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-08-05
AGAINST
THE UNWRITTEN LAW
APPEAL TO BARBARISM AND EN-
COURAGEMENT TO CRIME, SAY
CHICAGO LAWYERS.

ed storm among Chicago legal au-
thorities The invasion of the chivalric
theory into the deliberations of a Cook
county jury day before yesterday and
into other cases recently were met to-
day by protests from attorney ana
judges, who declared it reflection on
the status of civilization here and an
announcement to crime Rather a
different view, however, was taken by
States Attorney Healy, who said the
appeal to the unwritten law might
have merit in some cases. Other au-
thorities maintained that plea of that
character was an appeal to "barbar-
ISM"
The Cook county case which provok-
ed the remarks of the legal authorities
was the acquittal of John Callahan on
trial for the murder of John Nelson,
whom he killed in a saloon by hitting
him over the head with a beer botue.
The plea that an insult offered by Mel
son to the defendant smother. 80 years
of age, was justification for the crime
was made to the jury by Attorney b.
M. Thomas and it won Inc jury re-
manned out only few minutes.
The situation was emphasized by an
act late yesterday of Gov. Vardaman OF
Mississippi in which it is said the uns
written law plea was given a more ex-
IRENE application than in any other OF
the recent cases in which this appeal
has been used with success. Gov. Var
daman Internationally pardoned Mrs.
Angie Birdsong of Monticello, Miss. Z2
years old, who shot and killed Dr.
Thomas Butler, her family physician,
in November, 1905. Her defense was
that DR.. Butler had openly boosted Of
undue intimacy with her and that his
allegations were wholly false, but she
was convicted of manslaughter. In
her appeal to the governor the unwr1t-
ten law plea was urged as Justification
for the murder Critics of the Varda-
man pardon declare new maxim has
been AIDED to the unwritten law, name
ly kiss If you must, but never tell"
In other recent trials the unwritten-
law plea met with successful result.
That his daughter had been drugged
and attacked was the plea of Judge
Loving of Virginia when tried and &C
quilted.
Mrs. Mollie Bowie of La Plata, Md.
gained her freedom from a charge OF
numbering Herbert Posey on the plea
that he had refused to marry her
daughter, whom he had betrayed.
Former Judge George X. Favrot OF
Louisiana, the day after his election
to congress last fall, shot and killed his
chum and family physician, DR.. r. Ii.
Aldrich at Baton Rouge, La, who, he
asserted, had made disparaging re-
marks concerning Mrs. Favrot. He
was never indicted
Opinions of Chicago lawyers on the
effects of the application of the law
have been obtained
Men will always be able to appeal
1 successfully to the so-called law" said
States Attorney Healy who by the way
was not born south of the Mason and
Dixon line but on the Chicago north
side, because it is a direct appeal to
human sympathy and chivalry; and sc
long as we are constituted as we are
this plea is bound to be more or less
successful. The whole question can
be left to the sober sense and judgment
OF the common people sitting as jurors
when that question is at issue.
In many of the instances in which
that appeal has been successful l thinl
1t is right the jurors should have giver
consideration to it, and yet it is some.
thing that cannot be incorporated into
; written law. do not mean to say thai
any man has the right to take ven.
gence into his own hands against the
man who has despoiled his home, but
: instead of railing against the so-calleC
unwritten law when an appeal is made
to it in court, we ought to educate tn,
~AAAASA ASeAh man pO llldtl III tlI6I luSldlct
he will not take the law into his OWL
hands, but will look to the courts fol
his satisfaction"
That liberal humanitarianism which
raises itself above the law is not to be
tolerated in this country" said Judg,
John Gibbons of the Circuit court
There may be some cases of emo
tional insanity in which the perpetra
tor of crime is unable to contro
himself, but a plea of that kind is al
together different from the 'unwritter
law The only safe guide is the law
of the land"
NERVOUS HEADACHE.