Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-06-15
OLDHAM EXPOSES 4
LEGISLATIVE FAULT
Richmond Attorney Wakes Up
Courts In Louisville With
Important Discovery

IL IO iOlSCl dSdluSl tnS law
to have burglar tools in your
! possession.
Col. Ronald {. Oldham, of this
city, who has been handling some
big cases in the Louisville, Tay-
! lorsville and Cincinnati courts
recently, proved it to the salts
faction of the Louisville court in
the defense he made of one of
his clients down there. The Lou
isville Herald had this about the
local attorneys case:
Kentucky has always been not
ed for beautiful women, fine
horses-and once upon time
whisky.
Now there is thrust upon the
old commonwealth a new diStinc-
tion. Henceforth fame will be.
hers because OF the possession of
Il Legislature that forgets to re-
| member.
Last winter, while the solons
were ''polliticking' and doing
! other things at Frankfort. they
! overlooked one little matter that
is destined to make the having of
burglar tools i'll ones possession
a perfectly safe and legitimate
pastime. Heretofore for a citi-
zen TO have about him Jimmy"
OF any OF the tools that d person
who breaks and enters finds nee
essary i'll the pursuit Of his art,
that citizen subjected himself to
, arrest, and upon conviction, to a
! penitentiary sentence of from 2
to ) years. Now, however, any
body may, with impunity, have
all the burglar tools his heart de-
sires, and with equal impunity,
he may tell any inquisitive cop
10 go to" when he comes snoop-
ing around with questions.
1t happens thus:
When the Legislature last Win
ter opined that the statute cover
ing the crime of burglary did not
impose penalties sufficiently dras
tic, it set about to amend the
statute. doing so by making bur
glary punishable by death as the
maximum, and life imprisonment
as the minimum. But after the
solons had taken this law it apart
it bunglcd i'll the job of asscmb-
ling it. 1t left out one of the
cogs. 1t utterly forgot to say
anything about the crime of hav-
ing burglar tools. 1t reinStated
i'll the amended law the provision
as to the crime of robbery, but
as to burglar tools, nary Il word
was said.
The law, with one cog thus
missing, was passed, and is in eff
feet today, This means that there
IS no law against possession of
burglar tools i'll Kentucky.
The oversight of the Legisla-
ture was made known in Grim
inal court yesterday by Attorney
Ronald {. Oldham, Of Richmond.
Ky, who is defending J. w. Ira
cy, now on trial for the Nc
Coy Jones robbery, and who re-
Gently was convicted and SEN
fenced to ten years IN the peni-
tcntiary for having burglar tools
i'll his possession. Mr. Oldham
mentioned the lapse of memory
when he filed d brief in support
Of his motion for new trial for
his client on tie burglar tool
charge.
He explained, however, that
the fact that there is no longer
such law in this state as that
under which Tracy was convict
ed, does not initiate in Tracy's
favor, as at the time he commit
ed the alleged olTense, the bur-
glar tool law was apo:. the stat
utes. 1t will affect all those
similarly accused since the
amended burglary statute went
into effect some months ago.
Probably this is the first in
stance of record wherein a state
Legislature, seeking to tighten
Up the laws and make life more
burdensomc for criminals, did
exactly the opposite by making
the means OF burglary less haz-
There is no remedy in
sight Tor this omission until the
next Legislature meets in Janu-
airy 1924.
pI,.r.,- WAL