Year: 1859

evil the prevalence of rowdyism in the CITY of Bal
timore. There are in this community numbers of
men who are as well known as notorious profes-
sonal rowdies, and disturbers of the peace and
der of the city, the keepers of bawdy hou-
ses, or other notorious eyil-doers. The penalties
now, and for some years heretofore, imposed by
the Criminal Court of Baltimore on notorious
dies, the Grand Jury feel warranted in saving are
very far short of the public sentiment The iniic-
ton of trhiug fine for violently resisting an Off
Ger in the proper discharge of his duty, for some
wanton infraction of public order or private right
will scarcely be deemed suitable punishment for
such grave offences, operate as an example to
deter others. In the opinion of the Grand jury
the majesty of the law should always command res
pect in the person oft known officer; and in order
to secure this end the convicted rowdy should be
adequately punished for first offence and undergo
a regularly doubled penalty for each succeeding
offence.


The Grand Jury cannot pass from this subject
without brief allusion to political rowdyism espe
cially manifested in associated Clubs. The Grand
Jury are eye witnesses to the fact thatit is subver-
sion OF the dearest rights of the citizen by depriy
ing him by violence, by the exhibition of deadly
weapons, and by other modes of intimidation, from
exercising the most important right that freeman
can enjoy-that of voting his sentiments in safety
and quietness.


The Grand Jury desire further to present that in
their opinion the constitutional provisions and leg
sative enactments in reference the establishment
OF the Criminal Court of the city of Baltimore have
failed to accomplish the objects originally contem-





to be an expensive and burdensome institution to
the people of Baltimore without any adequate re-
turn. Having jurisdiction of all classes and cases
OF crime, it follows that hundreds of petty offences
such as breaches of the peace, petty larceny and
other minor Offences are stately submitted to the
investigation of Grand JuIies, ON whose action
presentments found, bills of indictment framed
and, sooner or later in the trial of which the Judge
Juries, Counsel, Witnesses and Court Officers are
all partcipators. The serious error here indicated
has years since been perceived and obvated in the
nrl n mol nacfA natI -ooAR VII
Philadelphia have each Recorders Court the
Judge of which, without the forms of presentment
and indictment, sits daily for the prompt trial and
disposal of all petty offences. The Recorder
embodies in himself the Court, Judge and Ju
ry, and the despatch of business is thus rem
dered certain. The Grand Jury are unan-
mous in the opinion that the city of Balti-
more greatly needs radical change in its Crimi-
nal Court constitution. The CITY imperativelv
needs two Courts, first Recorders Coutt with a
single Judge to sit daily for the prompt trial and
disposal OF all petty offences, without the interven
ton of any Jury; and secondly it needs CITY Grim
na Court for the speedy trial of the higher grades
of crime, with the usual aid of Grand and Petit Ju-
ries.


The Recorders Court should be required to sit
daily, and remain in session as long as NAV be
found necessary to dispose of the cases occurring
on the previous day-the object being to render
speedy justice, and in event to permit an accumu
lation and postponement of untried cases. The City
Criminal Court having cognizance only of the
higher grades of crime, should have four terms a
year, in order to insure prompt trial. the needful
provision should be made that every offence of the
higher grade, committed within the city of Balti-
more, shall be tried in this latter Court and that no
case shall be removed.


1t may not be amiss, in this connection, to advert
to the fact that in England, from whence our Crimi
nal Jurisprudence is derived, the law secures to
person charged with crime the inalienabe right to
be tried in the district in which the alleged offence
was committed, and thus to afford him fair trial
in the community where he is best known. In Ma
rayland, however, especially in the city of Bati-
more, the English notion is often practically ignored
and cases are not unfrequently removed from the
city to the county of Baltimore, not because fair
trial cannot be had in the city, but because re-
moval to the county gains postponement of the
trial for year, with the attendant chances in favor
of the absence death of witnesses or other favor
able contingency. In like manner provision should
be made that no postponement continuance shall
be allowed beyond single term, and only then for
really sufficient reason.


In reference to the expenses of the City Criminal
Court, the Grand Jury deem it only necessary to
present the following official statements copied
from the "Annual Report of the Comptroller of
Baltimore to the Mayor and City Council" =" for the
wears 1857 and 1858: