The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1910-10-07
Would Amend Jury Laws.


Fridays Commercial Appeal is sound,
logical and along correct lines. The
Judge, Attorney General and every 9TH
err official may read and know all about
the cause on trial and yet be competent
to officiate and discharge their respective
duties according to the law and the evil
dence. The competent juror, however,
must be totally ignorant Of the case on
trial. According to the construction of
the present law, the oath subscribed to
by the juryman amounts to naught,
The present system probably did very
well back in the forties but fails to meet
the requirements of the present by a
joyful. Gen. Estes is or the right track
and we hope to see his amendments be.
come laws
Amendment OF the laws governing
the procedure of courts is the theme
that has occupied the constant thoughts
of q. N. Estes, Attorney General of
Shelby County, ever since his return
from summer vacation.
He has in mind number of amend
ments to existing laws that, he believes,
will go far to assist in the conviction of
criminal persons and will stop up many
Of the loopholes through which guilty
persons SO often escape the penalty of
their misdeeds During his journeyings
in the East and North this summer he
has observed the modus operandi in
other States. He has seen criminals
convicted, he has seen the courts work
ing swiftly, and he has seen the result
of this enforcement of the law in the
relatively small number of crimes. He
has reached the conclusion that the same
results can be attained in Memphis, but
to do so it is necessary that the law Off
GERS shall have the support and cooper
alton OF the public, and that there shall
be some changes in the laws regulating
the procedure OF the criminal courts
The jury is finally the decisive factor
in criminal trial, and therefore it is
necessary that good juries shall be OBJ
tanned Gen. Bates, in an interview
yesterday, bemoaned the fact that the
difficulty in obtaining satisfactory juries
here lies to great extent in the fact that
good men, who profess to want the laws
enforced and who stand on the street
corners grumbling because the laws are
not enforced, and who are the very men
who are wanted on the juries to bring
about convictions, are the very men who
always sidestep jury service whenever
possible.
They escape service on trivial grounds.
They are the people who read the news
papers, and when they are brought into
court it is found they have formed cpin-
ions and are therefore ineligible for the
jury box.
1t is the ignoramus who never reads
the papers, and who never forms an
opinion, or who says he never forms an
opinion in order to get into the jury box,
who is finally accepted as the proper
pnrgon "a cit IN tho frioI
Gen. Estes thinks that some discretion
should be exercised by the jury commits
sioners in drawing the venires. The law
should give them a considerable scope
OF discretion. 1t might provide for adj
visory boards from each district to tell
them of the character and qualifications
OF the voters who otherwise are suitable
for jury material.
The law should permit persons who
are not householders or freeholders to sit
on iuries. There are many young men
in the city, says the Attorney-General,
who are clerks or otherwise employed,
who have fresh minds and are intelligent,
but who, by reason of property qualifi-
cations, are barred from the jury box.
The law should place some limit on
the examination of venireman by law
yers for the defense. At present the
operations of lawyers in this behalf are
carried to an absurd length. For in
stance, relates the Acknowledgement, in
recent case venireman was asked if
be had read of the circumstances of a
tragedy that was about to be brought
out in the trial. The man replied that