Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1913-07-30
A Remarkable Document.

and contain but little Ctner Indn refer
ences to routine work of Esub-commit-
tees. However, the presentment made
by the grand jury of Barnwell county
last week is notable exception, and a
portion of it should be read in every
court room in South Carolina. Be-
lievine that the opening paragraphs of
this presentment should be given the
widest possible publicity, The Adver-
tiser reproduces them, as follows:
To the Hon. Ernest Gary, Presiding
Judge:
eve, the Grand Jury of the County
of Barnwell, submit the following pre-
sentiment:
sin the able charge of your Honor
to our body, your Honor stressed the
fact that crime was proven by our own
docket to be rampant in the county,
there being forty-odd cases continued
from the March term of the criminal
court, to which would be added fifty or
sixty new ones, making the appalling
total close to one hundred.
"Now, we admit being ashamed of
this record and acknowledge as citizens
and Jurors our share of the blame,
though we do not take all of the blame;
but we place part and large part on
the whole Court, from the Honorable
Judges on the bench down to the most
obscure lawyer. Time and again we
have plead and urged that cases be not
continued, save for the best of reasons,
that punishment delayed would be
Justice defeated-but our words have
never been heard The lawyer still
gets up with his excuse, himsy or 9th
erwise, as the case may be, and so far
as laymen can see the genulneness of
the excuse is seldom looked into, and,
no matter how heinous the crime, the
case is continued from court to court
until the witnesses are scattered, some
even dying from old age, and when
at last the trial comes the criminal
gets off entirely and the people suf-
fer.
"All over this land we are crying to
the courts for help, asking them to
think more of actual justice and the
good of the country and less of their
so-called forms, technicalities, etc., and,
in our humble opinion, If the Honorable
Judges continue to disregard this cry,
the radical doctrine of the recall of the
judiciary will certainly spread, it be-
ing our only redress.
1--WE respectfully urge that your
Honor will continue this Court and, IT
possible, clear the criminal docket; and
if your Honor's health will not permit,
that you communicate with the proper
authorities, explain the situation in
our county and ask that a special Judge
be appointed in your stead.
Conditions have become almost in
tolerable in Barnwell county because
of the failure of the court officials
from the Honorable Judges down 20
the most obscure lawyer"-to do their
duty. Having borne and forborne for
a long time, the citizens who composed
the grand jury made bold to speak
tn cir minds plainly, and in our opinion
they have not gone too far in CRITICS.
ing the presiding judges. 1t rests sole
ly with them as to whether case shall
be forced to trial or continuance
granted upon some flimsy excuse de-
vised by some designing lawyer. 1t is
unfortunately true that the people have
lost to a large degree that profound
respect for our courts which they once
had. the expression being quite COM
mon nowadays that the lawyers run
the courts and not the judges. If the
pendulum swings much further toward
looseness and laxness on the part of
the judges, the radical doctrine of
the recall of the judiciary will certain
ly spread. "
1t need not be necessary for pre-
81 ding Judge to err at all, but if he
m ust err let it be in disregarding 'le-
gal forms and technlcalities" rather
than err by granting continuance after
continuance until witnesses scatter and
some die of old age.
Even with Edgeteld's light criminal
do cket there have been cases here with
in the past year or two that have been
very unsa tlsfactorily managed. In
st cad of being forced to trial with
fir mn ess and determination that would
tend to suppress crime, they have been
passed over from court to court with
an indi iference that virtually en-
courages crime.