PUBLIC DEFENDERS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1548, 18 September 1912, Page 6

PUBLIC DEFENDERS.

To the lawyers' there will appear to be plenty of room for argument about the wisdom of the Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill introduced by the Hon. A. L. Herdmax. The Bill'provides that in the case of a man charged with an indictable offence the Justices or the Judge, as the case may be, shall be empowered to order that the State shall provide the accused person with counsel if he cannot himself pay for counsel and "if it is desirable in the interests of justice that ho should have such aid." There is much to be said for the maintenance of the tradition that a barrister, when asked by a Judge to defend -an otherwise defenceless person charged with an indictable offence, shall cheerfully doso. It is a good tradition, and the "occasional appeals made to it are very good for the Bar. But there is an overwhelming case for the statutory provision, with proper safeguards, of what we can call a system of "public defenders." The State, in its judicial capacity, has to maintain the machinery of prosecution, and it is only half doing its duty of issuing justice if it shuts its eyes to the circumstances of those against whom it brings its arraignments. True, the machinery of the higher British criminal courts is a marvel of justice: at every point an , accused person is conoeded valuable rights and privileges. But since , juries are less perfect, to say the best for them, than the British judicial method, it must happen sometimes that for lack_ of counsel a prisoner is found guilty who would otherwise_ bo acquitted. Judges always do their utmost to assist, and in a sense, defend undefended persons; but this is an inconvenient and imperfect • substitute for direct legal aid. Mr. Herdman's Bill appears to be carefully drawn, and it well deserves the favourable consideration of the House.