Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-06-26
Bench And Bar Blamed For /
Miscarriage Of Justice

The address delivered by Judge Sci
den B. Kingsbury Of the circuit court
before the Maui grand jury at La
haina, during the June session, places
the blame for considerable of the mis-
carriage Of justice on the bench and
bar and relieves, to a great extent, the
laymen juries.
The address, in part, was as follows:
The theory of our jury system Is
perfect, but much of the practice in
Jury trials is faulty. These faults es-
pecially obtain to the proceedings
which are allowed in trials before
petit juries, and few of t.em are found
in the proceedings of the grand juries.
A few days ago the papers from
Honolulu contained articles which re-
ferred to the results of some criminal
trials held In that city. They We're
cases in which it is probable that the
Judge, the attorneys engaged, all the
officers of the court and the jurymen
themselves thought the defendants
were guilty as charged, yet the juries
brought In yerdicts of not guilty and
the attorney for the government was
SO righteously indignant that he made
remarks in court that some thought
constituted contempt OF court, and
he afterwards made explanations to
show that he did not mean to imply
anything against the court, but was
referring to the juries; and, If re-
member correctly, practically de-
nounced our systems o. jury trials.
Blaming Juries Fashionable.
Had he said as much against the
Judge, he might have been called on
to defend himself against the charge
of contempt. And had he saidA as
much to the attorneys for the defend
ant, he might have been called upon
to defend his words as unprofessional;
so he made scapegoats Of the juries.
With some, it has been quite fash
ionable for some years to blame the
juries and the jury system for the de-
lays and defeats Of justice in criminal
cases.
1t seems to me, after years of OBJ
servation and experience, that in most
cases the juries are not at fault, and
that as rule jurymen try to do their
duty It seems to me that the law
yers at the bar and on the bench ARE
the ones who have been most largely
to blame for the ridiculous proceed
ings used for delays and for the de-
feat Of Justice and for the binding and
misleading of the jurymen. Trivial
technicalities that have nothing to do
with the real merits OF the case are
allowed to effectually obstruct efforts
to enforce the criminal law. That
even after verdict and sentence, 1t is
not an unusual thing for our supreme
courts to set aside the verdict Of the
| jury because of some trivial tech
| nicality that by no kind OF reasoning
can be made to appear to have affect
ed the merits. Many of the appellate
| courts seem to be trying the prose
cutting officer or the trial judge rather
than reviewing the proceedings to de-
| termine whether the defendant has
any ground of complaint on the merits
Of the case.
Legal Reform Necessary
In short, they set aside judgments
rendered on the verdicts of juries
when they are as fully convinced thai
the defendant was guilty of the charge
as was the jury who rendered the YER
dict, and this is done on the ground
| that some mistake was made which
did not affect the verdict. 1t is my
humble opinion that the reform advo-
Gated by President Taft and now by
President Wilson and by the leading
lawyers of the United States should
begin with the lawyers who occupy
the bench and the bar. and that the
blame should not be laid against jur-
les or the jury, system. I speak of
! this now and have alluded to it before
in order that you, gentlemen of the
| jury, and others who are electors of
this territory may have confidence in
i our jury systems and in yourselves
who are the jurymen. In other words,
what we most need in this case, as
in all cases of reform, is right public
opinion. In our government. public
opinion rules and in the end is the
j foundation Of all governmental rule
with US. 1t is our duty each of us
| in this matter and in all matters to
do all we can that right public opinion
be established; and when this
is accomplished, the rest win be
easy. Our leading statesmen, our
i newspapers and all the emf
nent statesmen practically agree
that uncurbed and unchecked lawyers
i have been allowed to mislead juries,
work error into records and even
practically force presiding judges to
aid them in perplexing jurymen by
numerous charges called instructions.
/ know of case where the attorney
for the defendant offered fourteen
charges on the question of reasonable
i doubt, worded in various different
j forms and phrases but all ending
with a command from the Judge TO
give the benefit to the defendant and
acquit him. / have mad cases tried
in this court where there were be-
tween thirty and forty requests to
charge which, If given, would not
have had any effect except to confuse
the minds of the jurors.
/ Hands Tied by Statutes.
L IF ic NOT In baf ahlo