There are no more "tricks" practised in these tribunals than
in the civil, but they are more ingenious in conception, more
lawless in character, bolder in execution and less shamefaced
in detection.
Let us not be too hard upon our brethren of the criminal
branch. Truly, their business is to "get their clients off."
It is unquestionably a generally accepted principle that it is
better that ninety-nine guilty men should escape than that one
innocent man should be convicted. However much persons of
argumentative or philosophic disposition may care to quarrel
with this doctrine, they must at least admit that it would
doubtless appear to them of vital truth were they defending
some trembling client concerning whose guilt or innocence they
were themselves somewhat in doubt. "Charity believeth all
things," and the prisoner is entitled to every reasonable
doubt, even from his own lawyer. It is the lawyer's business
to create such a doubt if he can, and we must not be too
censorious if, in his eagerness to raise this in the minds of
the jury, he sometimes oversteps the bounds of propriety,
appeals to popular prejudices and emotions, makes illogical
deductions from the evidence, and impugns the motives of the
prosecution.
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