The San Francisco call., 1910-04-12
CRITICS SCORED BY
SUPERIOR JUDGES
Dunno Declares S0nntag Should
Look to Own Knitting and
Remedy Parole System
Justice Cooper and Prison Di=
rector Unfit fer Office, Says
Sacramento Jurist

That the state board of prison di-
rectors would be better engaged in
remedying it's parole system than in
critieising the judiciary of the state is
the opinion of Judge Frank H. Dunno,
yesterday to the statements of Colonel
Charles Sonntag, member of the
board. Sonntag charged the judges of
the superior court with not using
proper discretion in the sentencing of
criminals to the penitentiary.
Sonntag was emphatically upheld by
Presiding Justice Cooper of the court of
appeals, as told exclusively I'm The Call,
but the Endorsement of the above did
not deter Dunno from speaking his
mind freely. He refused to discuss
Judge Cooper's remarks, but he had no
hesitancy in meeting Sonntag.
CITES CASE OF YOUTH
IF the state board of prison di-
rectors,' said Judge Dunno, exercised
more care in the paroling of old Of
tenders the trial judges would not have
so many young criminals before them
This is no wild statement and 1 can IL
lustrate my point by a case which
came up in my court short time ago.
This was the case of Harry Collins,
a boy of Is or 19 years, who in April,
1909, was given one year in the peni-
tentiary. This month, almost exactly a
year later, he was in my court again
charged with robbery. The boy ap-
peared to be unfortunate rather than a
criminal. He had a defect in his
speech, which was extremely embar-
RAISING and which he said was to a
large extent the reason of his inability
to secure employment. / investigated
his case and found that he committed
his crime jointly with a man named
Harry Baker, fellow who has several
convictions against him, but who was
paroled by the prison board. While on
parole he, being an older and more ex-
perienced man, obtained an influence
over young Collins and prevailed on
him to commit the robbery.
This is but a single illustration OF
many such instances and while reading
the criticism of the judiciary I could
not but help think of the unfortunate
young man who appeared In my court.
Let us view the situation as 1t stands.
without false sentiment or misplaced
sympathy.
PAROLE LAST LOOPHOLE
THE criminal mind. it is palpable to
every criminal Judge, has come TO look
upon the courts as so many chances of
escape. There is the hope that he may,
through hook or crook, slip through the
superior court. If rich enough, juror
may be bribed, an obliging witness with
a dulled sense of truth prevailed on to
testify The superior court being of no
avail there is yet the higher court,
where thousand technicalities become
so many loopholes of escape In mis-
mind there always seems to be the hope
that some way or the other he will be
able to wriggle through. Ultimately
when he has run the entire gamut, with
each succeeding institution affirmin g
his guilt, the board of prison directors
obligingly gives him a parole. There
is the situation in a nutshell.
81 do not care to discuss Justice
Cooper's remarks. He is in position
to examine the records Of numerous
cases and is more familiar with the sit
uation than l am
Judge Mogan did not think Justice
Cooper's remarks applied to him. He
said:
"It is very apparent that Justice
Cooper had reference to the criminal
courts and those outside of this county.
AS I am in the civil department it is
not my place to give my views on this
subject"
PUNISHMENT CERTAIN
Judge Graham declared that GER
tainty Of punishment, rather than long
sentences, was the more effective.
'If the members of the criminal
class" he said, had impressed upon
their minds that punishment would
surely follow a violation of the law,
then 1 believe we would see far less
crime. The law, it must be understood,
is for the protection of society, and
this above all things else. Let pun
ishment be certain, rather than severe.
Let there be stamped out any belief
~ 49,
of escape. Such a belief, if it exists,
is vicious in the extreme and can be
held only by the ignorant. 1t does not
take much discernment to see that
those who hold such beliefs and who,
in their unfortunate ignorance of the
true nature and purpose of the law,
try to lay on it a foundation for crime,
must eventually suffer. At the most
1T is belief born of a haphazard un-
derstanding of Jaw, but it is none the
less harmful"
Judge Graham refused to discuss
Justice Cooper's statements, saying
such would be out of his province.
NOT TOO LONG
Assistant District Attorney Maxwell
McNutt, who is handling many of the
criminal cases for his office, did not
think the sentences imposed were too
long.
81 speak only of those which have
come under my immediate observa-
tion," he said GAS far as 1 can see,
the sentences are just and fair. l do
not know of anv case within my own
knowledge where a judge has been in
f1uenced by popular clamor In sehtenc-
ing a prisoner.
THE sentence is governed by the
circumstances, and unless one is fully
aware of all the circumstances it is
dangerous to criticise the judge"
Justice Hall and Justice Kerrigan
associates of Cooper on the appellate
bench, declined to enter the controversy
or to express their views on the ques-
ton.