The mirror., 1914-07-23
ANOTHER PLEA FOR
PUBLIC DEFENDER
The Demand for Efficient Counsel for Ac-
cused Men is Spreading from Coast to
Coast Defending Attorney is Sure to
Come.
WOULD PROTECT POOR
By E. Il. B.

long and varied experience, says in
an article occupying page of the
New York Times
Not many years ago the War
den of great prison told me of his
solemn and unalterable belief that
more than ten per cent of the pris-
oners under his charge had been
convicted and sentenced to impris-
onment for crimes of which they
were not guilty"
Probably there is not penal in
stltution in this country the War
den of which could not with
equal positlveness make a sim
liar declaration today. Any one
in the least acquainted with the his
tory of penology is aware that the
main dependence of criminal pro-
cedure, circumstantial evidence,
has in dismaying number of in
stances consigned innocent persons
to death or its hardly less dreadful
alternative, the anguish of indefinite
and sometimes torturous imprison-
ment. The pointing finger of sus-
picion has sufficed to send many
men to The gallows or the rack, for
time was when the law was only
too ready to apply the adage give
man bad name and you may as
well hang him.
Those having the responsibility
of enforcing the laws often develop
zeal of prosecution that blinds
them not only to the neral obliga-
tions of their trust but to the sane
titles of human rights. It might be
supposed that hardly any crime is
more abhorent than the ambition
that measures it's success by number
of convictions it is adroit enough TO
obtain, by the artful use of evidence
from which dispassionate justice
would recoil.
Loosely Framed Lave
Loosely framed laws which admit
of an Interpretation not intended
by the legislators who enacted them,
serve the purposes of cunning to
enmesh those who never 80 much as
dreamed of criminal act or conniv-
ance. 1t is not to be denied that
in recent years there has been a ver-
liable passion for the chase of hum
an quarry. The one time axiom of
law, that every man is assumed to
be innocent until he is proven gull
ty," -one OF the humanities of the
early effort to transform the savage
impulse into rational procedure, =
has become perverted in the actual
practice of courts. Now the pre-
sumption is that accusation by in
dictment is evidence of crime, and
the burden is upon the defendant to
prove his innocence. This, and
the modern usage of disregarding
intent by simple process of as
cribing intent" and proceeding as
if the mere allegations were con-
elusive, place the defendant at a
disadvantage from the very outset
by depriving him Of benefits which
it is the moral duty of prosecutor,
anxious only for exact justice. to
secure to him, for it should not be
forgotten that essentially the func-
tion of the prosecutor is no less to
Withhold the innocent from legal
damnation. than to fix the pen
atty of the law upon the guilty.
The Remedy
But if the ambition of personal
success and the hope of political
preferment operate in selfish minds
to tie wrong of individuals unfor-
tunately placed in the matter of de-
fence-the moneyless and friendless
fare ill indeed against the batteries
of state or federal courts what is
the remedy? The sovereign rem
edy of all, do unto others as ye
would that others do unto you." is
too remote from the spirit of this
age. One less ideal and more prac.
ticable and yet not unallied to it is
proposed in the article from which
quotation is made above. Mr.. May
er G.. Goldman, prominent men,
ber of the New York bar, is advoc-
ating the appointment of Public
Defenders for the different cities,
at sufficient salary paid by the
state, each Public Defender to be
" a sworn public servant, and have
in the conrfa a standing aa definite