LEGAL TRICKS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1989, 26 January 1907, Page 4

LEGAL TRICKS.

Tho wise of the American murderer Patrick, who after four years from tho time of his conviction and sentence to death, obtained a commutation of his sentence, has once more drawn attention to the frequent defeat of justice in America by technicalities. “The administration of the criminal law in tho United States,” says a London writer, “lias long since ceased to be an attempt t'o arrive at tho truth. It has become a contest of wits between lawyers, and tho lawyer succeeds who is able to read into the law some meaning that was far from the intention oi' the law-mak-ers.” It has become a practice with loading criminal lawyers not to attempt to secure an acquittal from tho 1 urv, but to allow the prosecution to seciiro a conviction, and then appeal on technical grounds. Beside every advocate in an American criminal court sits an assistant, whose sole duty it is to look for and note down technical errors with a view to appeal. To everything that promises tho slightest hope of an appeal he says: “I except.” Tho judge nods, the clerk replies “Exception noted,” and tho trial goes on without interruption. When the case is over and the prisoner is found guilty, his lawyer begins the task of examining tho record and preparing the appeal. Some time ago two members of a firm oi importers woro charged with conspiring with a Customs official to defraud the Government. The elder of tho partners fled to Europe before the trial, and counsel for the two devoted his energies to saving tho younger man. He frankly admitted that the senior partner had conspired with the Customs official, but persuaded the jury that the younger man had known nothing of the crime. The young man was acquitted, and tho Customs official convicted. Then this same lawyer appealed for the Customs officer, and successfully argued that he could not have been guilty of conspiracy with a mail who had not also been convicted of that crimo, and, of course, ns the senior partner was absent, ho could not be c6nvietfed. The Supremo Court held that this was good law, and the Customs House official went freo. The appeal in the Caruso case was not on the ground of newly-discovered evidence, or that the conviction was unjust, but ou the purely technical point that tho magistrate, by visiting and inspecting the place where tho offence was allegd to have been committed, constituted himself a witness as well as a judge. “Lawyers are iv-ry-whero, even on th’ bincli, be Hivens,” says JJr. Dooley. “They arc in the Ligislachure seem’ that tli’ laws are badly punctured and in th’ coorts seeiii’ that they’re thurly punctured. They are in Congress matin’ tli’ laws and flaws in tli’ laws.”