The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-17
MURDER TRIALS
 ARE FARCES Declares Dr. Andrew D.
 White. PROCEDURE IS INEFFECTIVE American Bar Association to Take
 a Hand. would Prohibit the Courts of Appeals From Deciding Litigations Brought Up on Purely Technical
 Points.
PROCEDURE IS INEFFECTIVE

New York. Aug.l 16.-Courts of Ap- peais will no longer decide either civil or criminal litigations brought before them on purely technical points. but will base their rulings formulated by a special committee of the American Bar Association If their plan shall become law.
 The committee was appointed by the association at its last annual meeting to suggest remedies and draft pro- posed resolutions to prevent delay and unnecessary cost in litigation. Its report will be presented at. special meeting to be held in Seattle from August 25 to 2S. It opens with state ment with the existing evil which seefna most serious to the committee. is the disposition in many Jurisdictions to dispose of appeals or wr1ts Of error both in. civil and criminal cases upon technical grounds and not to decide them upon their merits. The rule for deciding appeals and writs of errors should be based on reversible error committed Tn courts below. but the cases appears on. the record.
 The report calls attention to the fact that the tendency of the courts on common law counts is to construe appearance to strict legal rules as the W if there has been any infraction of rules.
 "Thfs makes the trial of case . game" declared the committee, "in which the one wins who plays the most skilfully merits of the controversy hav- ing no part"
 The unrestricted right to writ of error in~ criminal cases is charatcer- ized by the committee as q flasrau. abuse in judicial procedure.
 Solely for Delay.
 These writs," the committee added, "are constantly sued out solely for delay. The punishment of. notorious criminals thus Is constantly being postponed in violation of justice. These are especially fragrant in the suing out of writs of error from the Superior Court of the United States to review the decision of the highest courts of criminal Jurisdiction in the several courts We recommend that no writ of error .returnable, in criminal cases to- the Superior Court of the United States should be allowed until justice in that court shall certify that there is probable cause to believe that the defendant was uniustly convicted"
 In spite of this recommendation, the committee quotes an address of An- drew D. White, in which he stated that while murders were increasing rapidly. yet the procedure against them was becoming more and more in. effective and in the light of recent cases in New York and elsewhere was seen to be farce. adding that he favored preventing appeals based on mere technical matters and upon errors of trial judges in trifling mat ters of procedure and the like. which have nothing to do with the question of guilt or innocence. The committee declares that the reforms in criminal procedure which it recommends, are not theoretical, but have been tried and adopted in England to the satisfaction of the bad and benefit of the litgants.
 rSo far as reform in criminal pro- cedure is concerned. the grievance of which we complain has never existed