The result is that we have unnecessarily fettered ourselves,
have furnished a multitude of technical avenues of escape to
wrong-doers, and have created a popular contempt for courts of
justice, which shows itself in the sentimental and careless
verdicts of juries, in a lack of public spirit, and in an
indisposition to prosecute wrong-doers. In addition, the
impression sought to be conveyed by the yellow press that our
judiciary is corrupt and that money can buy anything--even
justice--leads the jury in many cases to feel that their
presence is merely a formal concession to an archaic procedure
and that their oaths have no real significance.
The community, the "People," have a sufficiently hard task to
secure justice at any criminal trial. On the one hand is the
abstract proposition that the law has been violated, on the
other sits a human being, ofttimes contrite, always an object
of pity. He is presumed innocent, he is to be given the
benefit of every reasonable doubt.
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