The Ashburton Guardian. Manga est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1886. SOCIAL MARTYRS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1437, 21 December 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Manga est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1886. SOCIAL MARTYRS.

Although it now and then—perhaps often—happens that the guilty escape the punishment of the law, on the other hand it at least occasionally occurs that the innocent are made to suffer by the mistakes of those who administer the law or set its machinery in motion. And this in spite of the axiom that “ it is better that ten who are guilty should escape than that one who is innocent shonld suffer,” Such social martyrs deserve not only sympathy but the fullest reparation, yet rarely, we fear, receive the latter, however much they may get of the former. We read of an instance of the kind only a week or two ago in which an innocent man, whose features unfortunately resembled those of another who was “wanted” on a criminal charge, was arrested in Westland and carried off to Christchurch, where he was tried, acquitted and left to find his way home again at his own charges and in his own way. On his return “ he found his situation filled up and has since been unable to find employment, and, says our Milton contemporary,” the Bruce Herald “ the chances are that the stigma of having been in gaol, and having stood in the criminal dock will rest upon him for years.” Referring to this particular instance and to others of a like sort our southern contemporary has the tollow ing very sensible remarks: “These cases are not of such infrequent occurances as may be imagined. The consequences to their victims are by no means limited to the actual and temporary inconvenience occasioned by tne trial and incarceration following. The humiliation and disgrace cannot be calculated upon a money basis, and are not brought to an end by the termination of the period of imprisonment. Even if proved innocent, and released upon such proof being brought forward all that the law can do is to grant a free pardon. Adding insult to injury, it sends the innocent man forth with the brand of the criminal upon him and the iron of lasting disgrace in his very soul. Even when a man is arrested on suspicion, and after undergoing the process of trial is pronounced not guilty and liberated, he is made to suffer hardships which surely entitle him to compensation. In such a case we hold that it is the bounden duty of the Government at any cost however great to see that he is placed in a position fully equal in every respect to that which he occupied before his arrest. . . . The least that could be done would be for the Government to advertise in every newspaper and announce by poster on every police station throughout the colony that so and so was mistakenly accused, and that after due trial he was pronounced guiltless, and discharged without a stain on his character. And further, the Government should charge itself with the support of such a man and all dependent upon him until he has achieved a position in every respect equal to that he occupied before the charge was laid against him. This is not mercy ; it is common justice. The law as such cannot entertain the idea of mercy, but it is as much its duty to save the innocent from suffering unrighteously as it is to mete out punishment to the guilty. When through the fallibility of its own agents the innocent are made to suffer, it is clearly the duty of the law, in the interests of right and justice, to make the fullest reparation possible. From this point of view we argue that to offer a condemned man who has been proved innocent a free pardon, or to merely set at liberty an accused person who upon trial is found innocent of the charge is not sufficient. The majesty of the law is under a cloud, and its dignity lowered until evety compensation it is possible to make has been fully made.” We entirely concur in the sentiments and suggestions of the Herald, and Mr Tole, as a law reformer, would do well to take this matter into consideration with a view to enabling every possible reparation to be made to the innocent victims of the law’s mistakes or of the mistakes of the officers, itf social martyrs of the complex machinery of civilisation.