The Criminal Law in America.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11789, 6 April 1900, Page 1

The Criminal Law in America.

Respect for the rights of murderers bag in the older States begun to clog tha wheels of justice quite seriously. In New York one doubtful case, in -which the accused is a man of good social position, has taken 11 "weeks to fry. and lias cost the State, largely for iho foes o£ experts in handwriting, moie than 200,000d01. In tbe ninth week one of t'io jurors became dangerously ill. and for several days there ivas a strong probability that there would bs a mistrial, and the whole case would have to be begun do novo. To obviate this in future, a bill has been drawn providing for a supernumerary thirteenth juror, who is to sib during the trial with the first 12 men accepted, but who will vote only in case one of the other men dies or becomes otherwise incapacitated. This is at tha best only a partial remedy, but the only alternative — to abide by a verdict givea by 11 or 10 or even nine surviving jurors would necessitate very far-reaching changes in the criminal code. A thirteenth juror will at any rate be an interesting experiment. In another direction, the treatment of habitual criminals, there is everywhere a foment of conflicting opinion, and almost every State has its own system. Delaware still holds fast to the stocks ancl the whipping post, and only a few days ago many persons made a pilgrimage to Newcastle to witness an interesting exemplary demonstration of these medieval methods. In the more advanced States tho tendency is to substitute indefinite for fixed terms, and to increase ever more, and more the penalty for incorrigibility. Indeed in California the proposal has even been mado seriously to make incorrigibility a capital offence ; but, obviously, there are many degrees of incorrigibiliiy, even in the class of felonies, while there aro some forms of minor offences which really do more mischief to society at large than a chronic pursuit of burglary or pockct-pickiug T although all would shrink from condemning such mere misdemeanants, no matter how incorrigible, to death. The worst; feature of the whole matter is that crime is everywhere apparently on the increase, and even offences such as assault with a deadly weapon, which might be excused in a pioneer civilisation, still show no marked tendency ,to disappear. Tha murder roll last year in the entire Union reached nearly 9000, even leaving out the 300 or more collective mob murders known as " lynchings."