ENGLISH LAW DRASTIC

Evening Star, Issue 18533, 16 January 1924, Page 9

ENGLISH LAW DRASTIC

DETERRENT TO MURDER. Tho comparative freedom of Groat Britain from crimes of violence is ascribed by Mr Wade H. Ellis, of the American Bar Association, chiefly to tho fact that English law has been made a real terror to tho evildoer. Mr Ellis, in company with Mr O. S. Whitson, former Governor of New York, and Judge Marcus Kavanagh, of the Superior Court of Chicago, spent two months in England and France, studying tho judicial procedure of those countries. The comparison he makes, in an article in the ‘'Washington Post, between tho administration of criminal law in England t France, and America, are distinctly in favor of European methods. Tho homogeneity of the populations of England and Franco is one reason which Mr. Ellis gives for the absence of violent crime, “ but more important than else,” he adds, is the fact that " in England and Franco in criminal cases there is celerity of action, certainty of conviction, and adequacy of punishment.” _ The knowledge that a man who commits murder is liable to be hanged within thirty days is a powerful deterrent. The backbone of the legal system in England and France is the judge, Mr Ellis observes, who has tremendous powers to shorten trials and hasten them to a conclusion. A place on tho bench is a badge of honor, and tho courts are well supplied with judges chosen solely for merit from the picked men of tho Bar. There aro ten to twenty times as many murders in New r York in a single year as in all England, Scotland, and Wales, and ton times as many murders every year in Chicago as in all Franco, Other crimes maintain tho same proportion. What is the reason ? Mr Ellis believes that in America, while there is nothing wrong with the basic judicial svstom, there aro not enough judges to handle criminal cases, and the judges lack sufficient power to control trials. The delay an tho State courts in the trial of major criminal offences tends to destroy confidence in tho law, and there should be a uniform criminal code for all States. There is no danger of going too far in the process of making the law a terror to wrongdoers: the trouble is that America has gone too far in the other direction. “We should stop coddling criminals, and think more of society,” declares Mr Ellis, “ and ineffective administration not only tends to protect but to create criminals.”