Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-05-22
AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM.
Dean Of Missouri University Law De-
partment Flags Appellate Courts.

The American system OF law in gen.
eral, and especially the appellate
courts, were flayed by John D. Law
son, dean Of the law department of
the University of Missouri, in his ad-
dress on needed legal reforms before
the st. Louis Bar association at the
University club Friday night. Lynch
ing, he declared, was only a protest Of
the people against the lax administra-
tion Of the law; that in Britain and all
her colonies, embracing many races Of
people, the lynching habit was un-
known because the administration of
Justice there was swift and sure.
The speaker referred to the appellate
court as simply place for the correc-
ton of technical errors, where the
question of right or wrong was not
considered and where the motto SEEM
ed to be, IAN ounce Of procedure Is
worth a pound of evidence"
Criminal justice is now a contest,
not a trial." he said 1T has develop
ed INTO a sort Gf game Of sport, with
the Judge as the umpire What do ver-
diets amount to II the criminals have
money to take an appeal? The old
respect for law In the United States Is
disappearing because Ii seems that
criminals may escape punishment
through the court Of appeals on the
merest technicality."
In substantiation OF his assertion,
Dean Lawson cited various instances
on record where verdicts in trials for
murder had been reversed on the
slightest sort of errors. In one Of
these the case was thrown out because
the word first had been spelled "fust"
In the information in another the
word breast was spelled without an
"a" Some Of these reasons for rever-
sions were so ludicrous that they read
like the efforts of Mark Twain or other
professional funny men. The tedious
time taken by the supreme court in
rendering decisions was also condemn
ed by the speaker. In any other pro-
fession, he said, such delays would not
be- countenanced.
Dean Lawson reviewed the develop
ment Of law from It's earliest forms
down to the present. Reform In law
first began, he said, at the end Of the
eighteenth century. It's progress since
then has been very marked in England,
but in this respect the United States
has not kept pace.
For thirty years, he said, English
justice had been certain. speedy and
cheap. This had been brought about
by investigation and reform Of law, by
commissions composed Of experts. AS
a result the appeal was practically an
unknown quantity there, while in the
United States appeal upon appeal is
taken, and at least one-half Of the
cases reversed by the appellate courts
are reversed on some question Of prac-
tice or error in the procedure.
The verbosity in legal phraseology Is
another of the legal wrongs to be
righted, Dean Lawson said. In British
courts, he said simplicity in legal pro-
ceedings now prevails. A plaintiff Is
even permitted to present his case ver-
bally, If he wishes to. The methods in
vogue in Missouri and Illinois, he said,
were those that prevailed in England
under the Georges. There are more
judges in any one Of the states Of this
country than in the whole of Great
Britain, the speaker declared.
In concluding Dean Lawson said he
believed a great wave Of legal reform
was approaching. He advocated the
appointment of the commission to in
vestigate the laws and their methods
Of enforcement and said that the great
est American president would be he
who would make American justice sim
ple cheap and swift, who would strip
it Of it's hampering technicalities and
make it a protector Of the rights Of
the people that would be respected
st. Louis Globe Democrat