Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/46

 Legal Conditions in Island of Negros. is tryin' to hang this jury. Now all I have got to say is this—that if this jury don't agree In fifteen minutes I guess there is enough disinterested citizens out here to do it ourselves.''

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Amid murmurs of approval the jury re tired again. Four minutes later it delivered its verdict, and everything was over in plenty of time for the fireworks in the even ing.

LEGAL CONDITIONS IN ISLAND OF NEGROS. By W. F. Norris, Judge of the Special Court of First Instance for the Island of Negros.

THE course of justice, in this Island of Negros, has been somewhat wayward; in fact" the legal situation would paralyze any one except a Philippino, who in mat ters pertaining to the judiciary would be startled at nothing. The Island of Negros is divided into two provinces, Oriental and Occidental Negros, which division follows the former Spanish system, the entire Island, with the district of Antique in the neighbor ing Island of Panay, constituting the Tenth Judicial District, which is presided over by a native judge: A Special Court, however, has been organized by special law, to hear and determine all cases which have accrued previous to the sixteenth of June last in the provinces of the Island of Negros. There seems to be special need of the special tri bunal; investigation shows an almost com plete stagnation of judicial business, in fact, to all practical purposes the doors of the courthouse may as well have been closed during the past two years or thereabouts. There seems to be an utter insensibility to the rights of the poor; nearly three hundred men were in prison at the time of the estab lishment of the Special Court, and over seven hundred criminal cases were on the files, in addition to a large number of civil cases. Men have been tried by the Special Court who have been in prison many months wait ing a hearing; one defendant a year and one month, another a year and three months, and another a year and six months. It is im

possible to tell how long men accused of crime would have been imprisoned without a trial, but for the fact that about the time of the earliest revolt against Spain there was a general prison delivery; this occurred in November 1898, so all prisoners have been confined less than three years, but several however, have been in durance between two and three years awaiting to know by judi cial declaration whether they are guilty or innocent. It must be remembered that arrest and imprisonment in this Island does not mean the same as arrest and confinement in jail in one of our States. The prison is the same before and after conviction; the man in prison under charge of having committed a criminal act and waiting trial, is kept at hard labor just the same as the convicted criminal. The course of justice has been slower since the revolution than during the days of Spanish domination. The present judge has the reputation of being a very honest man and a good lawyer, but exceedingly slow, so slow in fact that he may be said to stand still, while the prison is filled with un tried prisoners, and the civil docket with cases urgently demanding hearing. To the innocent man in prison waiting years for de liverance from unjust punishment, it makes but little difference whether the author of his oppression be a weak good man, or a wilful oppressor. The evil is inherent in the sys tem; there is an absence of moral sense