TRICKS OF THE LAW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13390, 19 January 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

TRICKS OF THE LAW.

HOW VERDICTS AUK UPSET IN'

AMEBIC*

"A lawyer gets ye into thiuuble by 111.1 - in' th' laws and gets ye out iv throuble be. bustin' tliini. Some"lawyers only know tli' law, poor follows, but others know th' holt's iii th' law that make it as aisey f'r a millionaire to keep out iv th' pinilinchty (prison) as f'r a needle to enther th' camel's eye. Lawyers aie iv'rywliere, even on th' Binch. he hivens. They are in the Ligislachnre seein' that Hi' laws are badly punctuated and in th' coorls seein' that they're thnrlv punctured. They are in Congress iniikin' th" laws and the Haws in th' laws. " Ml!. DOOI.KY."'

Mk. JJuoi.ky opinion of Lawyers was gained in America, where there has just been a striking instance in the Caruso case of the power of technicality. Ex-Judge Dittenhoefer, Signer Caruso's counsel, has succeeded in obtain leave to appeal from the conviction of his client, not on the i ground of newly-discovered evidence, or that the conviction was unjust, but on the purely technical point that the magistrate by visiting and inspecting the ['lace J where the offence is alleged to have ocj curred constituted himself a witness as ! well as a judge. The appeal will be argued lon this purely technical question wittiout I inference to Caruso's guilt or innocence. I '1 he Caruso ease is typical of a large I part of the practice in th*- American i criminal courts. The administration ot j the eiiminal law in the United States has I long ceased to be an attempt to arrive at the truth. It has become a. contest of wits between lawyers, and the lawyer succeeds who is able to read into a law some meaning that was far from the intention of the lawmakers. This condition has produced an anomaly in criminal practice. Many leading criminal lawyers would be shocked if anyone suggested to them that in cases where the evidence against their client is strong they should attempt to secure an acquittal from the jury. It is far easier to allow the prosecution to secure a conviction and then appeal on technical grounds. KSSKNTI WITXESSKS. By the time the appeal is heard and the, cast- is re-tried essential witnesses may have died or gone away or forgotten. Beside every advocate in an American criminal court sits an assistant, whose sole duty it is to watch for errors in the admission of evidence, in the judge*. rulings, in the questions asked by the jury. To everything that promises the slightest hope of an appeal he says: "I except." The judge noils, the clerk replies: """ Exception noted," and the trial goes on without interruption. When the case is over and the prisoner is found guilty his lawyer begins the task of examining the record and preparing the appeal. An amusing case tried some time ago in one of the United States courts in New York is a capital instance of the tricks practised by some lawyers to secure for their clients immunity for their misdeeds. Two members of a firm of importers were charged with conspiring with a Customhouse official to defraud the Government. A leading lawyer at the New Yolk Bar was retained for the defence, but nominally ho only appeared for the importers. * The Customhouse officer was represented by a junior. HAIL KOBi'EITEU. Before the trial the senior member of the importing linn forfeited his bail and fled to Europe. When the trial came on the leading counsel devoted himself to saving his younger client. He frankly abandoned all effort to justify the actions of the senior member of the firm, who, he admitted, had conspired with the Customhouse man. His young client, however, knew nothing about the acts of his wicked partner, and he persuaded the jury to take this view. The young man was acquitted, and the Customhouse officer was convicted of conspiring with the absent partner.

Then the leader at the Par appeared as counsel for the Customhouse man before the Supreme Court, and argued successfully that he could not have been guilty of conspiracy with a mail who had not alsb been convicted of that crime, and, of course, as the senior partner was absent, he could not be convicted- The Supreme Court held that this was good law, and the Customhouse official went free. There have been cases known in which lawyers suggested to judges, and magistrates that they should do illegal things, knowing that if their advice were taken it would be easy to secure a reversal of their verdicts in the higher courts, and there have been cases in which magistrates innocently accepted and acted on this advice. A FAMOUS CASK. One of (he most famous cases of the defeat of justice by technicalities Mas that of the lawyer- Patrick, of New York, whose sentence of death for murder has just been commuted to imprisonment for life. The evidence against. Patrick was unshakable, and rested among other things on the confession of his accomplice, which was amply corroborated. Patrick made a study of his own case when in prison awaiting execution, ami appealed his case from court to court, finally obtaining a new trial. He was again convicted, and again succeeded in obtaining stay after stay of execution pending the hearing of his appeal. His first conviction was four year's ago. and he has by no means exhausted his stock of technicalities.

A recent case in one of the New York magistrates' courts involved the, liberty of a well-known pickpocket, who wa.s charged with stealing a valuable watch from the j>erson of an eminently respectable man. Before the hearing came on in the Magistrate's Court a claimant appeared who said that the watch had been stolen from him a year before, and when the prosecutor entered the, witness-box lie admitted at once that, he bought the watch from a, pawnbroker. The pawnbroker remembered the sale, and described' the person who had pawned it, whom the police professed to recognise from the description is an habitual thief.

The second thief's lawyer then secured Ill's client's acquittal on the ground that, 'the watch being stolen property in the first place, the man from whom it was stolen the second time had no title to it, and therefore it could not be stolen from him. The magistrate held that this was good law, and, encouraged by this success, the. lawyer urged that the watch be restored to his client on the ground that lie. as the last possessor, hud the best title to it. the original owner not being able to prove where he had bought it. The magistrate ordered thai this, be done, and as he left, tbe court the prisoner handed the watch to his counsel in payment of his fee.