CHANGES IN THE STATUTE LAW
NOTEWORTHY CHANGES IN THE STATUTE LAW OF THE YEAR BY HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER THE annual address of the President of the American Bar Association is required by the constitution to review the legislation of the year in the various states and territories, and in the Congress of the United States. Of necessity, therefore, this important address is too long to print in full in this number, and in spite of the diffi culty of discriminating, we have tried to select for our readers the most important subjects discussed by President Tucker.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE "Illinois has passed a stringent act for the suppression of mob violence, first defin ing what a mob is, then providing that any persons composing a mob who shall by violence inflict material damage to the prop erty or serious injury to the person of any other persons upon the pretense of exer cising correctional powers over such person or persons, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and such injured person shall have a right of action against the county or city in which such injury is inflicted, and that the surviving wife or heirs of any person who has lost his life by lynching at the hands of a mob shall have a right of action for damages against the county or city in which said loss of life occurred in a sum not to exceed $5000. "The most stringent provision of the act is that which makes the taking from the hands of a sheriff, or his deputy, by a mob, of a person who is lynched, prima facie evidence of failure on the part of such sheriff to do his duty, and the governor shall at once declare his office vacant and appoint a successor, with a proviso- that, within ten days after such . lynching, the sheriff may be reinstated upon filing a petition with the governor, stating and showing by proof that
he did all in his power to protect the life of .his prisoner. "Michigan has passed an important act regulating the employment of expert wit nesses, in which it is provided that 'no such witness shall receive as compensation in any case for his services a sum in excess of the ordinary witness fees provided by law, unless the court before whom such wit ness is to appear or has appeared awards a larger sum; and it is further provided that no more than three experts shall be allowed to testify on either side as to the same issue in any given case, except in criminal prose cutions for homicide, except by permission of the court, and in criminal cases for homi cide where the issues involve expert know ledge or opinion the court shall appoint one or more suitable and disinterested persons, not exceeding three, to investigate such issues and testify at the trial; and the com pensation of such person or persons shall be fixed by the court and paid by the county where the indictment was found, and the fact that such witness or witnesses have been so appointed shall be made known to the jury, but this provision shall not pre clude either prosecution or defense from using other expert witnesses at the trial, and the act shall not be applicable to wit nesses testifying to the established facts or deductions of science, nor to any other speci fications, but only to witnesses testifying as to matters of opinion. "Missouri has adopted an amendment to her constitution prescribing that a jury for the trial of civil and criminal cases in courts not of record may consist of less than twelve men, and that a two-thirds majority of such number concurring may render a ver dict in all civil cases; and in all civil cases in courts of record three-fourths of the jury concurring may render a verdict.
