Imperial Valley press., 1935-07-05
NOTED LOS ANGELES ATTORNEY EXPRESSES
HIS OPINION ON REASONS FOR WEAKNESS
OF COURT SYSTEM IN ANSWER TO EDITOR

with our courts? Why do we
have vexatiOus delays long
dTawn-Out trials, technicalities in
cur courts and occasional cor
ruption in our judiciary and
among attorneys?
a San Francisco editor blamed
court procedure for all the evils
attendant on, our courts. His
complaint is given herewith.
Also is given an answer TO his
complaint by Attorney Norman S.
Sterry, chairman of the commit
tee on the administration of JUS
tice of the California Bar aSsOci-
alton.
We believe Attorney Sterry has
hit the nail ON the head" i'm
his reply to Editor CrOwelI and
that the root Of all our court
evils is the grinding out of at
tOrneys like SO many sausages,"
rather than our method of court
procedure.
Believing that the topic is
one which is of interest and i'm
pOrtance to the layman as well
as to attorneys and editors, we
print herewith the views Of Edi-
Tor Rowell and Attorney Sterry.
IF real reform i'm our judiciary
and among attorneys is ever to
be achieved, il must have the
strong neral support of the gem
eral public. Only in this way
,,,, uyIniaE AttnFnpU
sterry holds out be achieved.
The second Lamson trial failed
of a verdict of the guilt or inno-
cence of the accused, but it did
render verdict, unanimously
agreed to by the public, of the alb
surdity of our judicial system.
A trial lasting 81 days-nearly a
quarter of a year-is in itself a re-
duction to absurdity.
But it is more than that. 1t
amounts, in fact, to a denial OF
justice. The cost to a county is
beyond all reason. And to the in
dividual accused it is crushing.
Fundamentally the trouble lies in
treating judicial procedure as a
contest. The parties are assumed
to be equal protagonists-or antag-
onists. The court room is an arena
The judge is an umpire. The sky
is the limit and time is not Of the
essence of the contest,
The defendant must match in
yestigators, experts with experts,
counsel with counsel. Except in
the case of a defendant wealthy in
his own right, the only recourse is
an appeal to relatives, friends and
the public. This inevitably takes
the issue beyond the court and di-
VideS public sentiment.
Is this situation beyond remedy?
Obviously not In England, from
which we inherited our judicial
system-but before the English re-
formed fittings are done differ
entity. The trial judge dominates
the proceedings. JurieS are prompt
ly selected and the evidence is pre-
sented in an orderly manner, with
out time consuming Wrangling and
exhaustive cross examinations
There are no circus stunts.
An English murder trial takes on
the average three days and an ap-
peal is settled in two weeks after
it is taken.
That shows it can be done-and
done under the traditions of the
Anglo-Saxon policy that a man is
presumed to be innocent until
proved guilty, and that it is better
that a hundred guilty men escape
than that one innocent man be
convicted.
Since it can be done it is chal-
lenge to us to do it, A start has
been made in the recently adopted
initiative amendments looking to
Surer and sWifter administration of
criminal law. If the LamSOn case
will crystalline public sentiment to
do what still remains to be done,
it will have served a public pur-
pose.
In the interest of respect for
law, in the interest of the rights of
the people and of the accused, let
us hope that simple and just pro-
cedure will result.
May oath, 1885.
Mr.. Chester Rowell
Editor, San Francisco Chronicle,
San Francisco, Calf.
My Dear MI. Rowell
on NV retiIrO from a rncet1t trim
to New York 1 find on my desk a
mimeographed copy of the editorial
comments in the issue of the
Chronicle" of May Is, 1885, on the