Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-06-28
For LEGAL REFORM.

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RADIO made sensible address to the
members of the Iowa State Bar asso-
citation in convention at Des Moines
yesterday in which he endorsed the
plea made by President Taft for a re.
form in American judicial procedure,
and urged the bar associations to
unite with the president in securing
reforms that will reduce the expense
to private litigants in civil cases and
facilitate the dispatch of business and
final decisions in both civil and Grim.
inal cases. This, the president had de-
clared, constitutes the greatest need
in our American institutions.
Mr.. Thomas pointed out the "scien-
tific balderdash" which has crept into
our big murder trials as an evidence
of the need Of reform, and citing the
following as sample:
"'The modern murder trial is a cur
ious and startling. evolution in the
lawless science Of law The tolerate
Of public sentiment toward the man
who kills the spoiler Of his home has
ripened into legal Justification. for
homicide, and we now have the de-
Tense of the 'unwritten law 1t is but
one of the many manifestations of a
sort of legal Insanity which frequently
invests the modern murderer with
complete immunity. If he can establish
the suspicion Of undue intimacy be-
tween the deceased and some member
Of his family, or prove any so-called
eccentricity Of his own or OF an an
cestor, immediate or remote, followed
by any betrayal of excitement or the
lack Of it upon his part when the hon.
icide was committed, which will en-
able his counsel to prepare hypothet-
ical question of ten thousand words,
to be propounded to and answered by
half a dozen medical gentlemen pos
sessed Of many degrees, his chances Of
acquittal are more than even.
Nothing Of human conduct is too
absurd or too commonplace to be eX-
Guided from the hypothesis, and the
defendant is solemnly declared by the
expert to have been non cOmpOs when
he killed his man because at the time
he was calm, collected, Indifferent
and deliberate, or because he was i'm
pulsive, excited, passionate and re-
vengeful. The same facts determine
experts for the defense to one con-
clusion, which commit those for the
prosecution to It's opposite. And these
displays Of scientific balderdash con-
verting court rooms into show rooms
to which crowds throng for amusement
and diversion, lengthen into weeks
and months, burden the public treas
ur. with enormous expense, fire.
quently bankrupt and always tend to
the protection of the offender. The
case finally goes to jury, exhausted
in body and bewildered. by a fantastic
medley of fact fancy and opinion IN
which homicide and it's attendant cir
cumstances are lost to the understand
ing. They acquit, or stumble upon
some sort Of compromise verdict, an
nounce it and thank God for their re-
lease from an imprisonment lasting
longer than the term Of an ordinary
convict These things be travesties up
on Justice, for which public opinion
rightly or wrongly holds our profession
largely responsible and which must
give way to saner and sounder meth
DDS, if the law is to perform its normal
function and Justice be speedily, effect
ually and impartially administered.
Mr.. Thomas is prominent lawyer
in Denver, and Democrat, but he sup
ports the presidents stand for re-
form in legal procedure and urges the
bar to carry these reforms through as
the legal professions contribution to
the well-being of their fellow citizens.