The Jury System in Porto Rico. to effect on the first of April following. On the thirty-first of January, an elaborate law concerning procedure in jury trials, emanat ing from the same source, was passed and approved, likewise to take effect on the first of April, supplementing the first act in re gard to juries. On the organization of civil government, a United States District Court for the Island had been organized, under the judicial pres idency of Honorable William H. Holt, formerly a distinguished member of the Court of Appeals of the State of Kentucky. In this court, jury trials in both civil and criminal cases have been constantly prac tised. The business in the Federal Court, as it is called, is conducted almost entirely by continental lawyers, perfectly familiar with jury procedure. The jurors themselves are composed of resident Americans from the States, and of Porto Ricans who are more or less familiar with the English language. As all business in this court is conducted in English, this is a prerequisite qualification for a juror. It has sometimes been difficult to find competent men having this and other necessary qualifications to do jury service in the Federal Court. And besides, jury duty being entirely novel to the natives of Porto Rico, it will require some time for them to become accustomed to the business. As the Federal Court only submits the question of "guilty" or " not guilty," reserving the amount of punishment to be fixed by the judge, there seems' to be a disposition on the part of some of the jurors to hesitate in finding a defendant guilty, for fear the judge may impose a very severe sentence. And possibly the experience of persons accused in the Federal Court, who have had the mis fortune to be sentenced by the United States district judge, justifies this apprehension. It is very difficult to make the Federal ju rors in Porto Rico understand that they are
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in such proceedings only deciding an ab stract question, and that there is a vast dif ference between the province of a court and that of a jury. This lesson is one which even continental jurors are sometimes slow to learn. However, taking into consideration the history of the Federal Courts in Porto Rico, both the provisional court and that permanently established under the Foraker law, there is no great reason to be much dis couraged by the outcome of jury trials. The jurors show themselves willing in the main to do their duty to the best of their understanding, and after a while will prob ably not fall much below the general average of jurors in the larger cities of the United States. Great hopes were entertained by conti nental lawyers of what could be accom plished in jury trials in the insular courts; and the present laws which restrict the prov ince of the jury to criminal cases were re garded as a mere experiment. It was thought that it would not be long before civil, as well as criminal, cases would be tried before a jury of " twelve honest and intelligent men," after the manner of courts in the United States. But the insular lawyers do not seem to take kindly to this innovation. There is scarcely a case on record in which a jury has been demanded by a native attorney. They seem satisfied to rest the lives and liberties of their clients with the Bench, and prefer the old routine of making technical objections, and molding the evidence as best they can, to shield those who are so un fortunate as to be accused of crime. In fact, the courts, which are composed of eighttenths of Porto Ricans, exhibit a little tardi ness in organizing juries, and in getting down to business under the new system. Out of fifteen district judges in the island, there are only three Americans, and these have not been able, as yet, successfully to
