52
The Green Bag
is one of the ablest members of the St. Louis bar, and was president of the American Bar Association two years ago. He was born in Prussia, fifty-seven years a 0, but came to America as a boy and live successively in Ohio, Indiana and Iowa. He practised law in Nebraska until 1876 and in Des Moines until 1890, in which car he went to St. Louis as attorney for the 'abash Railroad. Until 1905 he was a member of the firm of B0 le, Priest& Lehmann, and is now of the rm of Lehmann & Lehmann.
Wisconsin Cri'minologi'sls med
before jeopardy has attached, all questions of law which can be so raised, or be deemed
to have waived his jeopardy so as to permit an a peal by the state; that a review on beha_ of the state should be pennitted on questions of law decided adversely to it. even though jeopardy has attached, such review, however, not to affect the result in the particular case‘,
that where the defence of
insanity is inte sed, the expert opinion in the case shoul be given only by experts chosen from a board or commission appointed by_ the state; that the existing statute re quiring a judge to grant a change of venue on the filing of an afiidavit of his prejudice
should be repealed entirely or be so modified The annual meeting of the Wisconsin Branch of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminolo was held in Milwaukee November 25-26.
on. Emil Seidel, mavor
of the city, welcomed the conference.
The
president of the Branch, Judge E. Ray Stevens of the ninth judicial circuit, delivered the opening address in which he reviewed some recent decisions in Wisconsin indicating a tendency of the Supreme Court to disregard unsubstantial technicalities. He also called attention to an opinion in a recent Wisconsin case in which the Wisconsin Branch was referred to as "a flame in whose light we are now administering the criminal law." Follow ing the president's address Hon. Harry Olson, Chief Justice of the Municipal Court of Chicago, spoke on “The Organization and Unification of Courts." The meeting was notable for the large number in attendance. The personnel in cluded judges of the state Supreme Court. of the circuit courts, of the municipal courts, district attorneys, prominent attorneys, phy sicians, ministers and laymen. The principal work of the conference was the mittees consideration appointed of at the the reports conference of the of 1909. com‘ The reports, which had been printed and distributed in advance of the meeting, related to the following subjects: Trial . rocedure;
Or anization- of
Courts;
Trial
of the Issue of It ental Responsibility; Sterili zation; Jury; Juvenile Offenders: Classifica tion and Segregation. Definite action on the following subjects, embodied in the reports of the above committees was taken: That the existing unrestricted constitutional guaranty against incriminating testimony by one accused of crime should be abolished and in its place Should be substituted, either in the form of a statute or an amendment to the constitution, a modified or limited immunity
(as four years at least must elapse before any constitutional change is possible, the repara tion of the Substituted scheme wil in the memtime be in charge of a committee of the Branch); that the existing statutor provision declaring that the refusal or faii’ure of an accused person to testify should create no presumption against him should be changed at once so as to permit such refusal to be considered by the jury with the other evidence in the case; that the statutes should be so amended as to require the defendant to raise,
as to prescribe time limits for filing such aflidavits, and notice thereby to opposite counsel; that the age limit of girls coming under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court be raised from sixteen to eighteen years, and of boys from sixteen to seventeen years; that a legislative committee of the Branch be appointed to put into proper shape the foregoing action, to bring the same to the
attention of the legislature and to urge the legislation necessary to make such action effective. The following questions were referred to committees for further consideration and report at the next annual meeting; the question of modifying the constitutional right of the accused to meet the witnesses face to face so as to permit the state in criminal cases to secure and offer in evidence deposi tions; that of the organization of courts; of the method and of the advisability of a trial on the special issue of insanity; of sterilization; and of the advisability of making obligatory upon all courts of record in the state the application of the principles of the juvenile court; the advisability of providing for the support of the wives and the support and education of the minor children of convicted and sentenced persons out of the earnings of such persons; the adoption of the indeterminate sentence. The Milwaukee Committee on Arrangements added to the hospitality extended by the city of Milwaukee by tendering to the out-of town members of the Branch a complimentary dinner at the Hotel Pfister. At the dinner Chief Justice Winslow of the Supreme Court acted as toastmaster and the following toasts were res nded to: Mere Technicalities, Howard . Smith, Professor of Law, Uni
versity of Wisconsin; The Press a Mirror of Crime, John G. Gre cry of the Evening Wisconsin, Milwaukee, §Vis.;
Reversed and
Remanded, oseph G. Donnelly, Chief Justice of the Civil urt of Milwaukee; Administra tion of Criminal Law in En land, Professor
E. R. Keedy, Northwestern niversity Law School. Chief Justice Winslow indicated that the number of those accused of crime in the state of Vt'isconsin who escaped punish ment in the last year, in the Supreme Court at least, on what might in any sense of the term be called a technicality must have been few, as out of the nineteen appeals to that
