The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-11-24
WRERE AMERICA
HAS FALLEN BACK
HlIO Judge Points 10 Necessity OF
Eliminating Nonessenilals
In Criminal Trials.

TO In tho address made TO the grand
jury Of the fourth circuit court by
Judge Parsons Of Hilo on Monday last,
an address powerful in the good sense
shown throughout IL. In part, Judge
Parsons said;
"Gentlemen Of the Grand Jury,-
This session not only concludes your
duties as grand Jurors for tho year but
It also marks the close of an epoch Of
judicial procedure in this circuit.
thereafter, instead of holding -four
terms Of court at intervals designated
without reference to the business to be
transacted, we shall have but one term
year, and that a continuous one, |
which win permit the calling of juries
whenever the eases upon the calendar
are sufficient in number so to warrant,
which viii do away with the needless
waste of time between August and
November made necessary under exist.
ing statutes, which win prevent con.
gested calendar at certain times in the
year, and which will assure prisoners
awaiting trial speedy disposition Of
their cases.
1.-THE new statute is but one Of sew
eral attempts to break away from anti
quated customs and from those of more
recent growth which have been allow.
ed to retard the transaction Of legal
business.
''Since the days when Jeremy Ben
than wrote his scathing denuncation
of legal rules of evidence the methods
provided by our various lawmaking
bodies for sitting truth from falsehood
in judicial proceedings and for doing
justice between parties have been un-
dergoing changes more rapidly in other
countries than in our own. The abuses
in criminal procedure have here grown
to such an extent shat our chief execu.
tive has been led 10 characterize them,
less specifically, but in terms quite as
denunciatory as those Of Bentham.
1.-THE supreme court has appointed a
committee of its own members to rec.
ommend. changes in federal procedure,
and Mr.. Justice Lurton is reported to
have gone abroad with view to study.
ing more intimately foreign systems in
order that he may make suggestions for
the Improvement Of our own.
"But it should be borne in mind
that many of the imperfections in our
own system are due to custom and not
to statutory enactment or to the want
of legislation. Fault has been found
with our courts for acting simply as
umpires in an extremely intricate game
played by the attorneys, in which the
adjudication of right and wrong seems
frequently, to the layman, to be merely
incidental. Our courts have been cen
sured, with more or less reason, for
assuming no controlling part in trials,
for permitting needless delays, for sus.
tanning technical objections which do
not go to the merits, of the matters
under consideration, for countenancing
appeals to passion and prejudice, and
for giving to juries only such instruc-
tions as have been prepared by the
Interested parties; but these abuses,
where they exist, are due more TO the
hesitancy on the part of courts to stop
Entertainments which by repetition have
become customs than they are to de-
fects in the law itself.
While 1t may not now be customary
for judges in this country to take an
active part in the trial of cases, as is
done in England and in Continental
countries of Europe, there is nothing
in the law to prevent such participation
in jury waived cases, nor is there in
jury cases provided bias is not shown;
and in many instances where courts
have been in the habit of keeping
litigant strictly within his legal rights,
namely, in ruling upon objections to
questions because they are leading, or
because they are not proper upon re-
direct examination, or in passing upon
motions to reopen case for the pur-
pose of introducing testimony previ-
Ously omitted, a different and more
liberal Course course more con.
ducive to an understanding on the part
of the jury of the material facts of the
case would have been possible under
the discretion with which courts are
vested in such matters.
Without any amendment of present
laws, courts may also restrain attor
neys when making appeals to prejudice
and may conhne them to a discussion
of the issues involved; and by preparing
their own charges courts may, without
error, exclude many of the misleading
INSTRUCTIONS requested by the Interested
parties.
$50 II may be seen that the so.ealled
conservatism which frequently excludes
a consideration of material facts In
case and which allows an easily In.
telllgible statute 10 be stated Ohseurely
TO the jury Is not always necessary by
law.
fln the matters named courts have
earned tho adverse criticism which Is
daily Increasing In press aud magazine,
more because Of fear Of being led into
( judicial improperly than OF committing
reversible eITor
aLikewlse many ~ tho proposed
measures Of reformation IN tho treat
ment Of prisoners need no now aialutes
~ prerequisite 10 their adoption, sir
Robert Andersous lato chief of Scot
land fHrd ms recommended tho adop
{ ilan pf rololmnioY rather than punl.
F ilfe meafmlf toward fret ~ oesallanal
nileudfff epi long terms flr plofer
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