Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-05-01
english HAVE
CONTEMPT FOR
OUR COURTS
NEED OF COMMON SENSE
Murder the Safest Crime in
This Country
(From the Literary Digest.)

| some severe structures on the prOce-
dure of American courts of law, es-
pecially in criminal cases, are made
in the London Nation. The "recall''
of an elected judge, or the recall of
] decisions, in order that the people
| may recall legalism to Justice" is,
however, condemned. Mr.. Roosevelt
/ takes hold of the tail, but no more
than the tail, of a fruitful idea" The
United States requires not so much
reform of judges, We are informed,
but "reformer of the Jeremy Ben
than type to restore common sense to
! it's codes and simplicity to their ad-
ministration' The Nation admits tina;
many American judges have spoken
] clearly and courageously against the
abuses of the law" Progressive pa
pers and magazines" join in the cru
SADIE, But of definite reformation, OF
any reasoned perception of how and
| where to begin, there is so far hardly
a sign" So "the average American
faces the stupendous fact that Amer
lean justice has broken down." espec-
tally in trials for homicide, of which
this writer says
There are, indeed, few crimes of
which an American can more safely
be guilty. If he commits murder,
| the odds are more than three to one
| against his ever being brought to
| trial; they are more than ten to one
against his being sentenced to inn
prisonment; and, as has been said.
they are more than eighty to one
against his suffering the extreme pen
atty of the law. Those are the chanc-
es officially ascertained from official
statistics, and they apply to the coun-
try as a whole and to all it's people.
But it need hardly be said that if the
murderer is a white man the odds in
his favor are very much above the
statistical average, and very much
below them If he is a negro Only
one country in the world, Mexico, ex-
ceeds the American record of muir
ders, a record that is proportionately
five times as great in the United
teen times as great as in England and
Wales, eight times as great as in ia
pan, ten times as great as in Canada,
and about twenty-five times as great
| as in Germany.
Politics, the press, public opinion
and the abuse of the pardoning pow
er" are blamed as some causes OF
| this deplorable candition, But beside
! these are the faults of the courts
I themselves. In fact, the law proce-
dure of the United States, we are
told, is antiquated and obsolete.
"The criminal procedure of Amer
i lea to-day is very much as ours was
| in the time of the Stuarts. II is hope
| lessly entangled in technicalaties, and
neglects justice and common sense to
| chase after impossible AVAILABILITY of
| form. In criminal case, as it is con-
Quoted across the Atlantic, it is not
the prisoner in the dock, but the judge
| on the bench, who is really on trial
| The counsel on both sides polish up
thousand little points of pleading and
practise and evidence, and fire them
off at the judge, who has to decide up
gle error, no matter how trivial or
how far removed from the question of
guilt or innocence of the accused, the
/ Appellate Court will order new
trial of the case almost automatical-
ly. 1t has been calculated that in 80
per cent. of the cases brought under
review in the Appellate Courts new
trials are granted"
The writ of error is the source of
many "absurdities," even in the rul-
ings of the Supreme Court. On this
point The Nation compares American
1 anu IIiSiISu lOl1O"o
I'm the English courts all errors of
form are brushed aside unless they
can be shown to have a miscarriage
of justice. In the American courts
any error, however technical and how
ever little related to the fundamental
issue, is held to presume prejudice
This writer. cites several instances
with which our readers are perfectly
acquainted, and concludes;
These few instances, from hun.
dreds that might be given, show the
spirit in which the law is construed
in America. They do not justify Mr..
Roosevelt's specific of the recall
which is, of course, approaching the
problem from the wrong end-but
they sufficiently prove the soundness
of his general contention that legal
ism and justice have parted company,
and ought to be reunited"