Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/54

 Ctje #reen 3Bag. Published Monthly, at S4.00 per Annum.

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Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, Horace W. Fuller, 15^ Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. The Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of inter est to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities or curiositiesy facetice, anec dotes, etc. THE GREEN BAG. Editor of the Green Bag: — The recent case of the people of the state of New York against I,angerman, in which Barbara Aub, the complainant, testified falsely against the defendant, whom she accused of rape committed upon herself, not only aroused public interest to a degree amounting to excitement, but it also upset the commonly received theory that cross exami nation, if skillfully conducted, is competent to detect and expose perjury. Perjury is practiced, as a matter of fact, by wit nesses during nearly all trials, whether civil or criminal. Nearly every action at law involves the lie direct. One of the parties states what is not true, and swears to it. The jury believes one of the litigants because it cannot believe both, and the credence is always rather comparative or rel ative than absolute. David said in his haste, "all men are liars"; and the Scotch minister re marked after he had read this text, that in his parish the Psalmist might have said the same thing at his leisure. Nothing is easier than for a person of moderate intelligence and a good deal of cunning to con coct a narration of some transaction which is alleged to have taken place between him or her and some other person, without other witnesses, that may be wholly false, and yet may be so dil igently rehearsed beforehand as to be adhered to on the witness stand, and not shaken by any crossexamination whatever. All that is required at the trial on the part of such a witness is a good memory, and sufficient nerve to rely upon its resources. In the case of the people against Langerman, the conscience of the perjured witness woke up in time to save the victim of the crime. Usually

such spasms of virtue are stifled, occasionally they operate half way, as in a case that happened to my knowledge a few years ago in the city of New York. A and B transacted some business together, which did not result to A's satisfaction. This was not the fault of B. But since B declined to un do the bargain, A went before a police justice and secured a warrant against B on a charge of larceny (constructive). Cross-examined by B's counsel before the magistrate, A, having sworn to a false narrative, withstood all attempts to pick flaws in it, his story being short, plain and de cisive; and although B denied the charge he was duly committed, and the Grand Jury found an indictment against him. Meantime the con science of the complainant stirred within him to this extent : that he refused to testify against B at general sessions, by keeping out of the way in a neighboring State until the indictment was dis missed; which being for misdemeanor only (petty larceny), could not be revived. After this, in a civil action, brought by B against other parties, connected with the same transaction, A ap peared and repeated his original story on the witness stand, where it could do no other than a pecuniary damage. No cross-examination could shake his memory. Q. K. D. That conscience, while it may shrink from letting its possessor swear an innocent man into prison, may, and constantly does, lose its grip in civil suits. "The longer I live," once said an able judge to the writer, " the less confidence I place in human testimony." Champion Bissell. New York.

LEGAL ANTIQUITIES. It seems that an express law was necessary to prevent the fair sex from attempting to plead in the Roman Courts of I .aw; for Ulpian in his treatise Ad Edictum, tells us that the praetor .57