OUR CRIMINAL LAW.

Evening Star, Issue 7160, 14 March 1887, Page 3

OUR CRIMINAL LAW.

TO THB EDITOR. Sin,—Still "another " fiasco has been added to our already too long list of maladministrations of criminal jurisprudence. That Hall must be thankful for the proverbial coach-and-horse track that pervades one and all of our criminal laws, few of us will doubt; but when we reflect upon the fact that society is absolutely at the mercy of Buch utter scoundrels as Butler, Prou.lfoot, Mr« Read, and Hall, and many such others, who have g • t off by the skin of their teeth, as it ware, surely the time haa corns when necessity innists upon tho adoption c» i/lobo of tho Impelial laws ielating to prime, and th« abaolute removal of ono and all of our colonial enactments. A full Bench havo quashed a conviction which 999 out of every 1,000 juries would not havo had tho-slightest hesitation about. Tho judgment, an delivered by Mr Justico Johnston, reveals two deplorable faots, viz., the one that the law upon the point must be as rotten as a pear; the other, why suoh evidence should be offered by the Crown, and even when questioned to be assured as to its correctness. Mr Justice Johnston states i very clearly that Mr Justice Williams had no

power to reject evidence submitted by the Crown, but, on the other hand, the learned Judge when direoting the jury placed no reservation on the evidence, even going so far as to reassure the jnry upon its acceptai.ee. One shudders when one pictures tho two cases side by side—the Mount Bennie case and Thomas Hall's—for with an expert lawyer tbe most positive and most revolting of crimes can bo laid aside with a technical flaw, which no one but the criminal himself could be proud of. It follows that a well-la'd scheme, however horrible in details, is at the mercy of a well-poised technicality with the laws now at our command, so that society has no protection, save what it can obtain between the loopholes and coaeh-and-horses drives. That this is a deplorable fact a glance at the elaborate judgment aohieved by Mr Justice Johnston will prove; but for how long society shall remain at suoh mercy our legislators must be responsible, which for common decency should not be for long. But a few years must elapse provided the prisoner is good oonduoted, and we must open our arms and accept the most unmitigated and heartless scoundrel it is our lot to live with.—l am, etc., Argus. Duncdin, March 14. TO THE KDITOR. Silt.—Far be it from a mere layman to question the correctness of tire decision arrived at by the five Judges in Hall's case. The judgment, however, s ems to enunciato tire somewhat paradoxical proposition that by the laws of tho country certain evidence may be tendered in proof of guilt only when the guilt has been established without it. Or, in other words, the evidence, when essential, mu.t be withheld; when superfluous, it may be used.—l am, etc., L.S.F. Dunedin, March 12.