Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/523

 THE GREEN BAG

49Q CRIMINAL LAW REFORM

In the Outlook for June 15th (V. Ixxxvi, p. 32 1) is a very clear and thoughtful discussion of " American Discontent with Criminal Law" by George W. Alger. He reminds us that a century ago public opinion in England com pelled reform in the methods of the English Court of Chancery, and that the American public in the same spirit is preparing to take up the condition of our criminal law. The causes of present defects in our system are partly the fault of the law but more especially due to the attitude of the public in lack of respect for the law. Especially do we allow a vicious sentimentality in favor of the indi vidual to override provisions established for the protection of the general public. If he were writing his manuscript to-day perhaps he would find an illustration in the reported clamor of a German mob against the convic tion of Han. This indicates that we are not the only sufferers from the malady. He says, "Today perhaps the strongest and worst influ ence for lawlessness which our country knows, the primary responsibility for which does not belong to the courts, is yellow journalism; the journalism which in everything it recounts or describes uses exaggerated sentimentality, freely mixed with falsehood, and which at best furnishes to adult readers nothing better than dime novel pictures of daily life; the journalism whose very existence depends upon bringing some fresh excitement to startle the overfed emotions and arouse the passions of its read ers." In this connection readers of the Green Bag will be interested to recall Clarence Bishop Smith's article on " Newspapers and the Jury" in the Green Bag, V. xvii, p. 223. The defect in practice which he chiefly criticises is our policy of magnifying the jury at the expense of the judge and the attitude of the appellate courts toward insignificant technical errors at the trial which have practically driven the trial judges to the position of umpire at a trial conducted by counsel. In conclusion he says, " The two great evils of our criminal law today are sentimentality and technicality. For one of these defects the remedy must come from the hands of the legis latures, the courts, and the lawyers. The other must depend for its cure upon the

growth of public opinion, under the demands of which reason, sober sense, and regard for law shall control all other influences and emo tions in the jury box. Our discontent with the criminal law, to be effective, must direct itself to the removal not merely of one of these evils, but of both." It is interesting to add that the Alabama State Bar Association has begun correspondence with other State assoc'ations with a view to united action in favor of reform of the admitted abuse of criminal appeals. The result of their labors should give us a more definite conception of effective remedies for the faults for which the profession is responsible and which are usually made the excuse for the lawlessness for which unreason ing sentimentality is the cause. All this discussion is encouraging. If the lawyers can be induced to take a real. interest in their sins, the rest will soon follow. MEDICAL EXPERTS The Medico-Legal society has taken up with energy the question of expert medical testi mony, and has selected a committee of which Chief Justice Emery of Maine has accepted the Chairmanship, to see if some relief cannot be found for that condition of degradation into which medical expert evidence has now con fessedly fallen. Other members of the com mittee are, Judge Garrickson of New Jersey, Judge Cobb of Georgia, and Chief Justice Rowell of Vermont. THE WAR IN THE SOUTH As we go to press the latest news from the front indicates that overtures for peace made by the Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of North Caro lina have been rejected by the Governor of the State, who has, however, intimated to the representatives of the railways, who amid fines, jails and injunctions seem to be between the devil and the deep sea, the terms on which he will submit to a suspension of hostil ities, and promises upon their acceptance to use his good offices to restrain his people from guerilla attacks All of which reminds us that there are dramatic possibilities in the Federal injunction that may change from comic to tragic over nipht.