THE HUMPHREYS CASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14683, 17 November 1909, Page 7

THE HUMPHREYS CASE

SCATHING IXDICTMEXT OF THE GRAM) JURY. SUGGESTED AMENDMENT OF THE LAW. (Fhom Oca Own Courespoxdemt.) (SHRISTCHURCII, November 16. (Vnnnienling on the action of the piiairt jury in the Humphreys case, the Evening News remarks that'unless it is judging the position very badly, the nine gentlemen who refused to allow Hnnmhre.VS to stand his trial for manslaughter have helped very materially to hasten the end of grand juries in New Zealand. the rejection of the bill of indictincut can have only one effect." it continues," and that is to weaken public confidence in the administration of justice and to create the impression that there are more ways of being nopiiltcd of a (serious crime than there ought to he. Time after time judges have impressed upon grand juries thai it is not their function to try the case." The News then'points out that Mr Justice Dcnniston explicitly 'told the grand jury that the final isfiie of guilt or innocence was not for it to decide. Yet the jm-y proceeded to hear the same evidence which, according to a trained magistrate, had disclosed a prima facie case. It is also stitlcd that additional witnesses were called. On this point the News says:—"ln the case of the hitter there would be nothing whatever to check them from making statements which would be ruled out\v the magistrate us not being evidence. No reasonable person reading the reports of the Police Court case could dissent from the magistrate's conclusion that ihcve wns a cine to answer, and that in the interests of justice the accused should have faced a common jury and got his acquittal, if innocent, at their hands. It will he perfectly excusable if members of Ihe public draw the inference that senlimcntnl considerations weighed more with the grand jury than any desire to see justice done. As matters now stand, the <luty of (he Crown Prosecutor is such that it would be presumption on our part to emphasise it in Ihe meantime. It would be fitting if one or other of the local members of Parliament were to officially bring Ihe circumstances of the present cn-ie under the notice of the Government and Id urge an amendment of the. law with a view to abolishing grand juries." °