The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1907-10-04
Brutality Of English Justice
BY JOHN DENIS. JR.

counsel and wholesome reproof are
manifold. and among them none is
observed with more JUNCTION than
those that enable Englishmen 10
poiHk out the immense superiority OF
the judicial practice in their merry
land.
For instance. recall TO yourself the
endless lessons of superior rectitude
that the English press drew for it.
self when the Thaw trial came 10 an
end. Mr.. Pecksniff returned from
Stygian shores and pomped and strut
ted and plumed himself in the coll
umns of every London daily, and We.
painfully conscious of our inferior
ways, were supposed TO learn in ST.
lence and humility from those that
know how these things should be
done
1t is with pain, therefore, that
mention the fact that the British
court system is not without flaws.
At Leeds last week they were try
ing man for murder in the first de-
gree, the murder Of his child. The
terrible conditions of the case were
such as to show that the slayer must
be insane. he had long suffered with
epilepsy Of an extreme type. While
being tried he was repeatedly shaken
by fits. he was unable to answer CO.
herently, he was clearly out of his
mind. The trial lasted few hours,
no attention was paid 10 the mans
a1 tneA hA If,n
as heartless as the grinding of a ma
chine. The man was found guilty,
sentenced on the spot and | suppose
by this time he has been hanged-a
lunatic.
We may do some things badly in
our country but at least we don't
hang irresponsible maniacs.
Also this week Conan Doyle has
been stirring up the monstrous and
almost maddeuing injustice in the
case of George Edalji.
This young man, a Parsee of ex-
cellent family and blameless reputa-
ton, found himself accused of MAIN.
ing and killing a pony. Not only
manning it, but manning 1t in a way
peculiarly horrible and revolving.
The police arrested Edalji, apparent
ly on the national theory that as he
was not English he must be depraved.
He was brought TO trial, rushed
through the formalities and SEN
fenced to four years Imprisonment,
a sentence that involved much more
than the usual horror, for the facts
Of the crime were Of nature to make
its perpetrator an object of inexpres-
sible loathing to all mankind.
The evidence on which this con-
viction was based proves on examin-
alton to be nothing. Not one cir
cumstance was discovered to connect
the young man with the crime: on
the contrary, it was apparent from
the testimony of his father that the
prisoner could not have left his house
on the night the deed was committed.
No one seemed to bother with these
facts. The business of English courts
is to convict. So Edalji was con-
victed and served his term.
Now it is learned that he was abb
solutely innocent, fact that any
court not organized as a mere con-
viction machine would have discov-
cred at the first inquiry.
Coming on the heels of the dread
full Beck case, in which an unoffend-
ing man was prosecuted for years by
the stupid police and spent most OF
his life in prison for crimes he never
ommitted-these things seem to in
dicate that the English have quite
enough to do to attend to their own
court procedure without supervising
that of other people.
Bad as we are, we don't habitually
send innocent men to prison.
Lest / should be thought to have
selected a few extreme instances OF
the perversion Of justice in England,
/ observe that the daily newspapers
contain something of the kind almost
every week. At Glasgow last week
man that beat his aged father and
struck him repeatedly in the face
was fined $40, and a boy that stole
prisoned thirty days. At another
place a man that assaulted a young
woman was fined s1.25; boy that
slept in an abandoned pigsty was SEN
fenced TO two months at hard labor.
A man that kicked another man into
inconsistencies was fined $3.50, and
young fellow that hurrahed at a
Conservative band in election time
was sentenced to two months i'm
prisonment. The most amazing cases
were those OF a girl that was sen.
fenced to a month at hard laoor fof
picking some roses from a grave in
cemetery. and a man that entered
public park at Ipswich before the
regular time Of opening and got s5.25
fine or a months Imprisonment.
Justice in England is essentially
savage. The severe restrictions
placed upon the press make the ad-
ministration of the criminal law Sc
cure from scrutiny. IL publicity were
TUNED upon IL there would be re-
IL