What are the celebrated cases--the trials that attract the
attention and interest of the public? In the first place,
they are the very cases which contain those elements most
likely to arouse the sympathy and prejudices of a jury--where
a girl has taken the life of her supposed seducer, or a
husband has avenged his wife's alleged dishonor. Such cases
arouse the public imagination for the very reason that every
man realizes that there are two sides to every genuine tragedy
of this character--the legal and the natural. Thus, aside
from any other consideration, they are the obvious instances
where justice is most likely to go astray.
In the next place, the defence is usually in the hands of
counsel of adroitness and ability; for even if the prisoner
has no money to pay his lawyer, the latter is willing to take
the case for the advertising he will get out of it.
Third, a trial which lasts for a long time naturally results
in creating in the jury's mind an exaggerated idea of the
prisoner's rights, namely, the presumption of innocence and
the benefit of the reasonable doubt.
Pages:
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91