84
The Green Bag
“Well, papa, they looked so nice, I—
and any others you want to tell what
I_)'
they know and after we hear them all
“I object to Harry's telling on him self in that way," interrupted the mother, who was a prime mover in the establishment of the juvenile court and had been present at the hearing
stole the apples. Harry shall not tell on himself. You will have to prove it." “Wife, this is foolish; Harry knows he stole the apples and we can settle
in court that afternoon.
this right here in the family without
“But, mother, Jimmy saw him take them."
the whole neighborhood being called in.
“That makes no difference," replied the mother. “I will call in Mrs. Smith,
the women will decide whether Harry
There is no use branding our boy a thief." “Are you sure it will be constitu
Mrs. Green, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Thomas
tional?" said the wife, with a twinkle
and Mrs. Franks.
in her eye.
We will get Jimmy
Challenges and the Powers of Judges SSOCIATE Justice Charles B . Letton of the Supreme Court of Nebraska, in a paper recently presented to the Nebraska State Bar Association, dis
cusses with helpful moderation the problems of law reform in that state. The common criticisms against the courts are taken up one by one, and suggestions are offered for cautious
constructive reforms in practice
as
this account it is practically impossible in criminal cases of any importance-rte find a man of ordinary intelligence who has not read newspaper accounts of the occurrence and who has not formed more or less of an opinion or impression from his reading. Most men are not
sufliciently nice in the exact shade of the meaning of words to discriminate
with a lawyer’s refinement between
regards continuances, system of special 'the words ‘impression’ and ‘opinion.’ verdicts and appellate procedure. We While counsel for defendant seizes upon
quote the portions of the paper which deal with challenges and with the powers of judges, because the object-lesson of
the Cn'ppen case has shown our Ameri can methods to be notably defective in these important respects. The sug gestions would not apply to the state of
Nebraska alone, but may be of general application : “Challenges for Cause. The problem of elimination to procure twelve im partial men is a difficult one. In these days of popular education the daily and weekly newspaper is in the hands of almost every person who can read the language of the country, and on
every ‘impression’ of the juror as an ‘opinion,’ the counsel for the state on
his part seeks to reduce each ‘opinion’ to a mere ‘impression’ and usually the court by asking leading questions endeavors to settle the matter by eliciting from the juror assent to the statutory formula that ‘he feels able, notwithstanding
such impression or opinion, to render an impartial verdict upon the law and
the evidence.’ The endeavor to force the description of the condition of jurors’ minds into a set formula of words, a kind of Procrustean bed, to define
opinions as ‘fixed’ or ‘hypothetical,’ or impressions as slight or deep, usually
