590
THE GREEN BAG
comes a crime, all organized government is shaken to its foundation stones and the fabric of civilization is fast tottering to its fall. It surely, then, behooves us, as the conservators of order and the preservers of civilization, to consider this subject most seriously and most closely. These bastard laws of violence and wrong, like real laws, have their evolution from infancy through adolescence to maturity and thence to decay. Some of those we have cite,d are now in the full vigor of youth, some have reached the fullness of maturity, and some are falling into their decadence. Let us consider them somewhat in detail. The strongest one of them all is the first which has been designated " Law I," rela tive to the violation of women by beasts in human form. This seems to be a law of almost universal application everywhere, and both the atrocious crime and its illegal and inhuman punishment seem to be alarm ingly on the increase. It is almost impos sible to read the morning paper any day in the year without seeing the report either of such a crime or such a punishment, often of both, and not seldom of more than one instance of each. This deplorable condition of affairs has lately been accentuated and emphasized by the nullification of a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States by a Tennessee lynching and the public shooting of a rapist in the presence of the Governor of South Carolina; while, of late years, the horrors of torture and the stake have been borrowed from the dark ages to add to the brutailty of the terrible spectacle. It is impossible that the best, or even a high type of civili zation can be developed or, having already been developed, can endure in a country where such atrocities are permitted, and, worse still, find their advocates and apolo gists. It may be trite, but it is as true as it is trite, that there is no safety beyond the realms where rules the law unchallenged in serene and sublime majesty proclaiming with
the very voice of Deity: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." The first great fundamental right of every one accused of crime is a fair and impaitial trial, and where this is denied liberty dies, personal security perishes from the earth, and all human rights are crucified. It matters not how heinous the crime or how guilty the criminal, this first great right of man must be preserved. It may, it is true, sometimes prove the means of escape for the guilty, but it is the only protection of the innocent. To those who ask: "If it be only necessary to deny, what will become of the guilty?" it may be fitly answered in the words of the Roman Caesar: "If it be only necessary to accuse, what then will become of the innocent? " No, this inalienable right cannot be justly denied to any man and should be accorded even to Judas Iscariot if he were called before an earthly tribunal to answer for his betrayal of the Master. Apart from the crime under discussion, there is perhaps nothing more revolting to the human heart than the punishment of the innocent. To prevent this, all consti tutions and all systems of law provide for the careful judicial investigation of all crimi nal accusations. In spite of every possible precaution, it sometimes happens that an innocent man is convicted and punished, as witness the Dreyfus case which so shocked the world. When an insensate and infuri ated mob usurps and exercises the functions of the judiciary and arrogates to itself the right to mete out life or death to a fellow human being, what safety is there then for the citizen, what protection for the inno cent? How many guiltless men have thus been condemned and executed by lawless mobs can never be known, but it is certain that many more will be added to the number unless this evil practice is soon arrested. The outrage upon the rights of the indi vidual accused is not all of the evil engen dered and propagated by the resort to lynch law in such cases with its frequent attendant horrors of torture, mutilation, and
