GETTING THE BETTER OF A JURY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7371, 24 January 1902, Page 4

GETTING THE BETTER OF A JURY.

Someone has said that the fce3t way to eecura the repeal of an objectionable law is to enforce it, and no doubt this ia a very effectual method as a rule, but it sometimes causes juries to be disinclined to convict a prisoner if they think Ihe Judge will afterwards give him a severe sentence. An experience of this sort once fell to the lot of Mr Justice Day, at the Liverpool Assizes. 'There was an unusually large batch of- the " High Rip Gang" to be brought up for trial, «od several convictions had been secured, and severe floggings, in conjunction with short sentences, ordered, whan the jury commenced a series of deliberate acquittals, designed to save the prisoners from floggings. The Assizes over, the Judge went to town, and scoa afterwards learnt that nearly all the men he had sentenced to be flogged had been medically certified as unfit to undergo the punishment. The consequence was that, their sentences being short, they escaped both the flogging and the long term of penal servitude which would have been theirs if no flogging had been ordered. This was not in accordance with His Lordship's idea of justice. So next time he went to Liverpool he hit upon a very clever expedient. As each " High Rip " prisoner was convicted, the Judge postponed the passing of sentence upon him till the conclusion of the Assizes. In the meantime, he had them all medically examined, and those who were certified unfit for floggings received long terms of penal servitude, while those whom it was safe to flog were visited with a short term of imprisonment and an extremely stiff dose of " the cat." Thus clid the grimmest of judges outwit the jury.