The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-07-23

The honor Of presiding over this as
ISOLATION would be more greatly APP
rreciated did it not impose the duty
Of making an address. However I'M
fortunate to me and to you il may be.
such is the fact. and the obligation
must in some sort be discharged.
In casting about for a subject, which
unhappily IS not provided for in our
rules, 1T occurred to me that / could
not do better than to call your atten-
ton to another phase of the question
so interesting discussed by my accom-
plished predecessor-the growing con-
yiction Of the OF our admin
istration of the law.
1t is true that Mr.. Manly did not
his to be the subject of his
DISCOURSE, nor did he express the opin-
ion thai the administration of law was
in danger of breaking down, or even
of losing public confidence, but he at
tempted to show how crude and I'M
reasonable for obtaining just and i'm
iecting a jury are, and l think, com
pletely succeeded not only in doing
that but also in pointing out a more
excellent way.
The truth is that no thoughtful OBJ
server of the times can fail to be
deeply impressed by the evidence of
a growing dissatisfaction with the ac-
tual workings of our courts, nor is
that dissatisfaction confined to
"lewd fellows of the baSer sort" it is
shared by the most sober, serious and
solid citizens; it is discussed with in
oreasins emphasis by the weightiest
periodicals. professional and lay; 1t,
Is the motive, conscious or Uncon-
scious, of all discussions looking to
Improvement in the constitution of jul
ries; and it Is. 1 verify believe. the
cause of that contempt of authority
which encourages lynchlng and other
forms of anarchy
That such loss of confidence is we'll
founded is not only evidenced by it's
own existence but Is easily denonstra-
ted from we'll known facts.
Law Notes for February, 1907, calls
attention ShaI ply to this matter and
refers to the case of one Cornelius
Shea, whose trial for some offense be-
gan on the 18th day of september, and
the work of empanelling a jury was
not completed until November the
-29th-nearly three months thereafter!
other similar cases will occur to the
memory of US all.
In commenting upon the unsavory
Thaw trial the London Times of April
10, 1907, says:
All the long proceedings in the
Thaw case have come to nothing; the
jury, after comforting for the best part
of two days, have failed to agree, and
we have done with what had become
a public nuisance, a spectacle of which
every right-minded person longed to
see the end. From first to last the
trial has been a strange and unedify-
ing exhibition. The proceedings of
Courts of Justice, if they must be
such as we have seen, would be as
to be punished. The issue for the Jury
was of the simplest. a murder. bru-
tai and cowardly, had been commit
ted. unless rhaw was insane His
state of mind was, it enc the only
matter really in dispute.
Yet the trial has gone on without
a break from January %. At every
.t.~1 Tho -nDanIinuc have haan a r9 u-n
out. To impanel a jury some 400 tai
esmen were summoned, and days were
spent in disposing of challenges and
objections, often. as 1t seemed, of a
and. denomination. of witnesses
were of inordinate length. We know
that questions of admissibility or onnis-
sion Of evidence are pressed in Amer
lean courts in q way in ours,
at least in modern times American
lawyers often contract the laxity as
10 this matter prevalent here with the
rigorous playing of the game in their
courts. This tendency has been ex-
kibited IN an exaggerated degree"
Certainly and fortunately these
cases are exceptional in the amount
of strain they put upon the machinery
established for the maintenance of or
der and the protection of society, or
'self-help"-anarchy-would be iney-
itably and Immediately forced upon
us. But they differ from ordinary
cases III deSTSS dlueT liid III hlIld,
and the defects which maxi such
Nightmares possible probably exist. if
latent, in the legal procedure Of a ma
Jority of the States. 1t is certainly no
uncommon thing to hear of them
wherever the defendant has ample
means and a litigious disposition;
when all the means of delaying or de-
feating Justice offered by technicali-
ties-invented to curb the great and
raise the low'-are brought into play
by ~resourceful counsel.
Grave defects are found not only
in the work of the trial courts but also
in the disposition of cases on appeal
and it is highly probably that it is
the attitude of appellate courts to-
wards mere technicalities that pro-
duces these interminable trial and re-
trials
Last summer Judge Charles A.
Amidon delivered an address on the
Quest for Error." which was a
trenchant criticism of, and protest
against, the almost universal practice
of our appellate courts of granting
new trials for merely technical errors
without considering whether any sub
stantial right of the appellant had been
denied; and this upon the theory that
where error is shown injury is pre-
sumed; and the learned judge conclu-
stvely showed that this solicitude for
technical accuracy, unattainable in
long and hard fought cases, causes the
paramount interest OF society to be
entirelv overlooked.
If public policy demands, as can
easily be shown. hat there should be
an end of litigation this doctrine of
injury presumed from error shown
should be discarded; and this is one
of the least of the many reasons which
might be advanced for the change.
Although you will find in many
opinions in our reports strong express
siOns denoting that new trials will be
awarded only for substantial error, ]
hin a careful examination will show
that this pernicious theory really DOM
mates our own Supreme Court.
l remember seeing a case tried
where the issue was whether the de-
fendant had committed a homicide.
The State introduced a witness, who
had sworn, at the inquest, that he
heard the report of a gun and ran
around the house and saw some one
running away. but that it was too dark
Tor him to recognize the person rum
ming away. At the trial he swore that
ne had in fact recognized the defend
ant Another witness uae ip+roI,-naI !