Arizona republican., 1910-04-28

ignorant foreign population are far
 more frequent than we fortunates
 care to admit. This is especially true | in the great cities where the courts
 are crowded with business, the pres
 sure is great and justice is neces | sarily hurriedly administered in ob- scure cases.
 The most prolific abuses occur in 1 what are known as assigned" causes | in which the defendants and their families and friends are too poor to furnish bail or employ counsel. In I those cases the court assigns counsel who serve without pay except that in some states a moderate fee is al- lowed in capital cases only. The coun- scl assigned in these cases are with
 rare exceptions almost necessarily young and inexperienced men or law yers without standing or ability. Yet these are the cases above all others in which the defendants are
 already at the greatest disadvantage,
 being incarcerated, unable to go about to look up witnesses and too poor to
 employ anyone to do so for them. If
 they are first offenders of previous
 good reputation, as they generally are
 tfor experience has shown that pro-
 fessional criminals are generally able
 to secure counseD. their prison expe-
 rience has taken the courage out of
 them by the time they are placed on
 trial
 They come to the bar of justice crushed in spirit. and if innocent. in -s.,l |. to any fate. Their assigned counsel. whose retained clients are his chief concern. easily convinces himself that he has done his duty to his pauper client if the prosecutor will accept a plea of guilty to lesser form of crime or be content to recommend a moderate sentence. And so before the to him he has consented on less mo- tice and in less time that it requires to tell the story. to take the advice hurriedly given him as he stands quivering at the bar and so he finds himself on the way to prison There is hardly day in the year when this scene is not enacted in the courts of our great cities
 It is NIT. Untermyers belief that such q system results in innocent men being branded and punished as crim- inals admits of no doubt, and that the of such crimes against justice and humanity is very much under estimated. ltris undoubtedly true as he Joints out. that nowhere in our social fabric is the discrimination be- tween the rich and the poor so mani- fest as at the bar of justice-simply because the accused man of means is always sure of defense by able The courts do the best they can to remedy the evil. but the sys- tenn of assigned counsel does not pro- vide an adequate remedy.
 It is apt to strike the average mind l as inconsistent for society to provide !, ! public prosecutor and employ | against him an able lawyer whose | business would be to oppose the i :iple of this system prevails now. when the court assigns q lawyer to 1 lefcnd a moneyless prisoner. The | trouble from the standpoint of justice , S that assigned counsel are generally i he young and inexperienced members | ,f the bar. If they take more than q :; interest in seeing justice lone to their client. their zeal is not ! likely to avail much against the 'hrewd and well equipped prosecutor. ,fr. Untermycr thinks. and he is un- right in a measure. at least, hat the average prosecutor is car jed away by his anxiety to make inc record for convictions and that le often forgets that his real duty is o ascertain first of all whether the prisoner is probably guilty.