If he
guesses wrong, the lawyer "excepts" and the case may be
reversed on appeal. This is not a test of the defendant's
guilt or innocence, but a test of the abstract learning and
quickness of the presiding judge.
It is generally believed that appellate courts are prone to
reverse criminal cases on purely technical grounds. Whether
this belief be well founded or ill, its wide acceptance as
fact is fertile in bringing the law into disrepute.* Justice
to be effective must be not only sure but swift. An "iron
hand" cannot always compensate for a "leaden heel".
*Cf. "Criminal Law Reform," G.W. Alger, "The Outlook," June,
1907. Also article having same title in "Moral Overstrain,"
by same author. See also, by Hon. C.F. Amidon, "The Quest for
Error and the doing of Justice," 40 American Law Rev. 681, and
article on same subject in "The Outlook" for June, 1906.
It is probably true that in some of the States such a tendency
exists and may result in making the administration of justice
a laughing stock, but it is far from being so in States of the
character of New York and Massachusetts.
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