Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-11
The Third Degree.

Police inquisition in the treatment OF
prisoners suspected of crime is the sub
tect of special inquiry by the Crimes
Commission and now reported upon at
length by the particular investigators
and the commission itself. The COM
mission recommends the consideration
by Congress of new code of criminal
procedure. 10 be used largely by the
States, and suggests the possibility of
a constitutional amendment if neces-
sary to stop illegal and brutal third
degree" methods by the police.
This is by no means a new indict-
ment of police methods. Nor is it the
more convincingly presented than on
former occasions. when, on a smaller
scale, the practices Of Acknowledgement
officers have been brought under ques-
ton and condemned 1t is simply a
more sweeping denunciation, with a
wider range of illustrative instances
many of which, it may be judged from
the two of local nature, are so old as
to serve no useful purpose in the
present citation.
Undeniably persons suspected of crime
have been cruelty treated in many OF
the cities of this country-perhaps in
all of them, probably in all of the
States. This method. known as the
third degree, is a relic of barbarism
and of fiendishly inhuman practices
employed in inquisitions of the Middle
Ages. 1t is violative Of the natural and
the legal rights of the accused. 1t is
contrary to the law which assumes the
prisoner to be innocent until proved
guilty. 1t has probably led to mis-
carriages of justice in the forcing of
confessions from innocent persons,
driven into avowal to escape hideous
torment. And by the same token 1t has
undoubtedly brought to book many a
criminal who otherwise would have
escaped.
Immediately upon the publication of
the report, with its array of eases"
and its naming of cities where the
third-degree practices have prevailed
and perhaps still prevail-there has
come an outburst of denials from police
authorities and prosecuting officers and
municipal officials There are also
angry retorts to the general effect that
criminals are not entitled to gentle
treatment. There is also a chorus of
explanations that the practices COM
planned of in the report have been
abandoned or modified
Proposal of a Federal statute to cor
rect abuses in the States is decidedly
beside the mark, for no Federal law
could reach the municipal police forces
or affect the judgments of the State
amendment is equally of doubtful wis
dom, for it is difficult to see how any
such addition to the organic law of the
land could be so framed as to cover
effectively already illegal practices.
Such recommendations or suggestions
are 10 be regarded as academic offer
tngs by the Crimes Commission.
The courts can be relied upon now TO
correct actual abuses as far as they
can be corrected. The proof Of third
degree outrages upon the persons OF
prisoners is and must continue to be
extremely difficult There is usually
only the word of the prisoner against
that Of the police. There are always
more police witnesses than prisoner
witnesses, for the brutalities OF torture
are always perpetrsted in secret. This
is not matter for more law, but
for stricter supervision by higher police
officials and municipal administrators
over the methods employed in the pre-
liminary inquiries into criminal cases.
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