The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-10-24

Instead of trying Mcnamara. who
is charged with murder. the court at
Los Angeles is putting in its time try
ing the jury. or rather the human
units who will ultimately make up
the jury. assuming that the world
does not end before that result is
reached. The dispatches say that a
month may be employed in getting
this Jury into working order, but this
is probably an exaggeration.
The theory Of a jury is very simple.
1t is no more than hat twelve good
=. them, shall be brought into the box.
/: What is meant by good men" in this
! relation? No more than certain OBJ
! vious qualifications. part Of which
they should possess and part Of which
! they should not possess. They should
! understand the language in which the
trial is conducted: they should under
stand the nature Of az oath and have
respect for it: and they should be able
to draw a normal conclusion as be
tween circumstances and causes. They
should not be drunkards or accus-
toned to use opiates; they should not
have any special or pronounced hob
by: and they should have no self-in-
forest in the accuser or the accused.
In short, they should be twelve m
partial men Of the neighborhood who
are fairly representative of its intel
. ligence. its decency, and Its modera-
ton. The object Of a trial is not to
convict the accused but to ascertain
the truth. and the twelve men should
be competent to get at the substan-
tial truth as shown or clearly indicat-
ed by the evidence placed before
them. This is the whole of the jury
system in its theory: and this theory
has been found by experience to
work better. when applied plainly and
simply, than any other method yet
devised for drawing accurate conclu-
sions from a given set Of facts or cir
cumstances.
In England the Jury system is still
worked substantially along its thee.
retical and original lines. The Eng
fish Judges see to this. They do not
permit two opposing groups of law
yers to wrangle for days and weeks
over fanciful and imaginary qualiica-
tons. They do not permit lawyers
to bring in what may be called the
atmosphere Of the case and cloud
every ones mind with it. If a man
who is a member of the Church of
England or Of a trades union is ac-
cused of murder in England his law
years are not permitted to drag in the
Church of England or the trades
union, but are held to the single point
as to whether the man charged is
guilty or not guilty as charged. But
our American judges allow more lee
way. They do not seem to have a
clear idea Of their own responsibility
and power. particularly when the case
has awakened large public interest.
Instead Of pushing the case firmly
and rtgidly toward the sole question
involved. they permit the lawyers an
ployed to taxi pretty much their own
course. The result is that the simple
process of finding twelve good men to
hear the case is turned into a pro-
longed and Irrelevant farce, full Of
things asserted which can never he
proved. and which there is no inten-
tion of trying to prove, but which
tend more or less to confuse the pub
lie mind. and which turn a simple
question Of Justice into a noisy and
~disgraceful partisan clamor. We
wish that our trial judges in capital
cases had more backbone. 1t would
increase the power and authority with
which murder trials are dealt with in
this country. and it would make the
actual execution of justice as between
the accused person and society a good
deal straighter than 1t now is. Law
yers should he made to understand
that they are the servants of the
court. and not the court itself.