The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

 ed States severe, let such one read the address of Judge Charles Amidon on 'The Quest for Error delivered few years since before the great state bar association of Minnesota, and he will doubt no longer.
 It is not too much to say. as these who have followed the history of the subject know, that the administration of the criminal law both in the fed- era1 courts and in the state courts in this country is 50 years, at least, behind it's administration In England. The truth is, that the many safeguards In the constitution and in the legislation, in this country, thrown around person on trial charged with crime, are the ex- treme expressions written in these instru- ments by freemen struggling against a condition of tyranny and despotism ex- isting at the time when the prototype of these provisions were first written in the various charters of English lib- erty.
 When they were so written there was great need of protection for the cit- izen against the King and against the arbitrary, despotic methodc of trial, against which these provisions were a protest But the situation Is wholly dif- ferent today, both in England and the United States.
 The danger today Is rot that any in- nocent man will be convicted, but that guilty men will constantly escape. by reason of refinements and technicalities existing in the legislation of the coun- try. There ought to be, and there ought speedily to be, thorough overhauling of all the provisions in respect to crtm- inal procedure, and of Congress. with a view of making it the rule that there shall be e speedy trial by the courts of original jurisdiction, and that there shall never be reversal by the courts of last resort because of any misdirectfon of the lower courts in regard to instruc- ton or admission or exclusion of tes- timony. or in regard to any other mat ter in the course of the trial. when the court of last resort, looking over a com- pleted record, can confidently say that these errors, whether taken singly Or in combination, did not produce a wrong result; in other words, that there should be mo quest for error'' by the supreme court, but that the object of the ex- animation of every record in a criminal trial should be to ascertain whether the right result has been reached and if that is so, then there should always be no affirmance, no matter how many errors may have been committed in the proceed ure of the court below; in other words, courts are not arenas for adadenio dis play, but they sit to administer justice;
 
 quick justice''
 The absurd notion which have some times heard advanced. that the supreme court sits to try the judge in the low CT court, Is the very opposite of the pur- pose which should govern every supreme court.
 It tries not the judge below to see if "mousing about" to use President Taft's expression it can discover some error on ,iat, av,d hue Ia hav but 1t sits to find out whether or not the result reached in the court below ls the right result on the case made by the record.
 I especially concur in President Taft 8 observations as to the want of power on the part of American judges. The fed eraI judges have very much the same power, in theory, at least, that the Eng fish judges have; but the judges of the state courts for the most part, ex- ercise power very like that of ''the mod orator of religious assembly" to use President Taft's very witty and pithy expression. They are particularly ham, pered in regard to their power to charge the jury and, if one will consider care fully the statutes of the various states with respect to the power of the state judges, he will reach the conclusion that they sit upon the bench with g. great deal of nominal authority but. so far as the conduct of tho trial through out its course is conceraed. in prac- tical straight jacket, hammered and fet- tered by an unreasonable fear lest they should exercise power properly belong ing to judges and so freely and efficient ly exercised by the judges in England. Lawyers are proverbially conservative. and in my judgment. they are far too conservative with respect to many most seriously needed reforms in legal pro- cedure. For example. to give but one instance:
 What reason can be assigned worthy of the name, why majority verdicts should not be received in all civil cases and in all misdemeanors. And yet tho constitutional and legislative provisions to the contrary are the rule through out the country with but few slight exceptions.
 The evils lie, as President Taft has 50 wisely said, lin the system." and what is needed is the appointment of . com mission by Congress, and by states. of the very ablest legal talent in the coun- try, without regard or any other con sideration, who will conscientiously un- dertake a thoroughgoing reform and ac- complish the ends in view--abolition of the delays, and cutting down of the enor- nous expenses incident to these trials, and the striking out from the constitu- tions and from the statutes of the states all those provisions which obstruct these great ends.
 It Is not meant by me to suggest that any of these great safeguards of per- sonal liberty, inherent in the nature of every fair trial should be interferred with but I do think that all those constitu- tionaI provisions and all legislative pro- visions which result necessarily in mak- ing possible the long delays in the ad- ministration of the civil and the crim- final laws, which can fairly be classified as merely technical in their character. not going to the substance of . fair trial, should be eliminated. We live in dif- ferer,t. atmosphere from that which pre- vailed at Runnymede. and tho laws of our age should conform 10 the needs of our age.
 By Charles N. Pottsr.
 (chtef Justice of the Supreme Court of
 Wyoming)
 am aware that there fs wide spread belief that in the country at largo there are radical defects in the present legal system resulting in uf- due delays of the law. which are. in turn, responsible, for a failure in many cases in the enforcement of the crimi- nal law, allow an unreasonable and un- fair advantage in civil cases in favor of the contestant who may be in . bet ter position than his adversary fnan- cially or otherwise to sustain . pro- longed litigation, or permit one party by mere delay practically to prevent the other from securing his just right. and I do not doubt that there is rea- sonable ground for Just criticism along these lines.
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