El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-02-04
TECHNlCALITIES OF
THE LAW.
MEANS BY WHICH JUSTICE IS DELAYED


Taft hopes to call for the pur-
pose of finding ways and means
of simplifying legal procedure, will
have work a plenty. Besides the pro-
verbal slowness with which modern
justice uses her balances to determine
the right, there are hundreds of tech
nicalities which more often defeat the
ends of justice than subserve them.
That apocryphal verdict, Guilty, but
not proven" finds many more or less
exact counterparts in legal procedure
Admits Guilt, Acquitted.
legislator once was indicted for
bribery. He was tried and acquitted.
Asked about the outcome he replied:
''Vindicated. sir; indicated"
A verdict of not guilty, then, sup
poser rejoined the questioner.
We'll, not exactly answered the
statesman, in flush of honesty. The
indictment read that I was a member
of the assembly, whereas 1 was mem
Der of the Legislature. 1t further set
forth that I had accepted a bride,
whereas, it was proved only that took
the money"
In another case an old colored man
appeared before a police judge for
stealing chickens. AS he came before
the bar the judge asked him if he were
the defendant. He replied: NO, sab,
that gent'mum ober dar IS de one what
does de defendin' Use de gent what
stole de chickens" Yet he was per
mitted to plead not guilty, and ode
gent'mum ODER dar" put up such a de-
fence for him that he went scot free
Pays AnOther's Debt.
Some years ago, a man by the name
of John Smith owed a ST. Louis mer-
oh -
discovered that an Illinois firm was
indebted to a John Smith, so he gar
nisheed the money in the hands of the
firm and collected it. Later, the John
Smith who was the creditor of the Illi-
nois firm came to collect his bill. He
was told that his money had been gar
nisheed for the satisfaction of the debt
due to the St. Louis merchant.
But he had never owed anything to
the st. Louis merchant It was a clear
case of mistaken identity. His money
had been taken to satisfy the debt of
another John Smith. He brought suit
against the st. Louis merchant to re-
cover his money. He had never owed
this merchant a cent in his life, and
was prepared to prove it, but the court
held that it could not right the wrong
it had done him.
Justice Defeated.
Chicago offers a well known instance
of the ends of justice being defeated
by a technicality- A notorious charac-
ter was arrested while dressed in the
garb of a woman. He was tried and
sentenced as a woman. Afterward he
took advantage of his knowledge of the
technicalities of the law and declared
that he was a man The courts held
that a man could not be kept in prison
after having been tried and convicted
as a woman.
In Missouri, woman and her child
were murdered by a man who wanted
the victim to leave her husband and
elope with him. He was arrested,
pleaded insanity. but was sentenced to
be hanged. By forgery, he secured
money to carry an appeal to the SUI
preme court. All the lower courts up
held the verdict of the trial court, and
yet the supreme court reversed it and
the prisoner died a free man. The af-
firmation of IS judges was outweighed
by the dissension of five.
In another case the record in a muir
der case failed to say that the prisoner
was arraigned and pleaded not guilty,
although the context abundantly show
ed it. Yet, on this technicality. the
prisoner escaped by the reversal Of the
verdict of the lower court.
Taft's Experience.
President Taft himself has had some
experience with the delays of the law
Years ago the people of his home city
became tired of these delays and injus-
tees, and burned the courthouse as an
evidence of their impatience. Mr.. Taft
visited Columbus. and was heard by
judiciary committee of the Legislature.
He appealed for a REDUCTION in the
number of peremptory challenges in
criminal trials from % to IL.
The chairman of the committee set
tied back and observed:
'fWhy, I have seen the time when I
would have given my entire fee in a
case TO have the oath preemptory chal-
lenge!"
Mr.. Taft declares that the lawyers
are pennywise and pound foolish-that
through delays, technicalities and ex-
pensive procedure, they are forcing men
to arbitra ton who would otherwise ap-
peal to the courts
Protection for Accused.
The law provides certain protection
to accused persons, and often these
safeguards produce anomalous condi-
lions. For instance, a highway robber
attempts to hold up a man. He is stab
bed by the intended victim, who es-
capes. An officer, in arresting the
highwayman, discovers the stab wound.
1t is the best link in the chain of evil
dence, and would make the conviction
Of the wouldbe robber certain. yet. un.
der legal procedure, it is not admis-
sible as evidence. If the highwayman
had been successful in his attempted
holdup, he would have been searched
from head to foot, and this evidence
brought out against him.
A jury may resort to any sort of tao
tics to decide a case, even to the flip
ping of a coin or by drawing straws.
and the court is powerless to invade
the jury room with its questions But
if a peeping bailiff or an eavesdropping
clerk chances to see or hear something