The Presumption of Innocence in Criminal Cases

Abstract

5 Laws of i66o (Whitmore's Edition), 187; Anc.Charters and Laws of Mass., i8o.The year of this enactment is not given.What is called "The Laws of i66o," is a compilation of that year.6 It may be added that our administration of the criminal law to-day, in a period when the substantive law is merciful, is sadly enfeebled by a continuance of some rules and practices which should have disappeared with the cruel laws that they were designed to mitigate.I may refer to the refusal of new trials to the government in some classes of cases, to the absurd extreme to which the rule about confessions in evidence is sometimes pressed, to the strained interpretation of the prohibition of ex post facto laws, to the continuation of technicalities of criminal procedure and practice which have lost their reason for existence and to a superstitious rigor in enforcing these, which still shows itself.In following English precedents in such matters, we forget to supplement them by that saving good sense which appears in the swiftness and vigor of the English administration of criminal law.If we follow English practices we -should remember that they are all meant to go together.Excellent criticisms of this sort may be found in the dissenting opinion of Peckham, J., speaking for himself and Justices Brewer and White, in Crain v. U. S., 162 U. S. 625, 646, 65o.He justly characterizes the result arrived at in the opinion of the court as -most deplorable."7 48, 19, 5. 8