Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 3, 2025
He swore that none ever talked to themselves who were not witches. The devil's mark being found upon her, the additional testimony of her guilt was deemed conclusive, and she was "convict and brynt." From the year 1652 to 1682, these trials diminished annually in number, and acquittals were by no means so rare as they had been. To doubt in witchcraft was no longer dangerous.
Besides, as there is no law about duelling, you must distrust the courts of justice. The day will come when some jury, tired of so many acquittals, will agree upon a conviction. Your case may be decided by this jury so it is only prudent for you to disappear, and abide the issue. Things have entirely changed during my ten years' absence; all this is new to me.
In the year 1910 the juries of New York County convicted in sixty-six per cent of the cases before them. If we are to test fairly the efficiency of the system, we must deduct from the thirty-four acquittals remaining the fifteen acquittals which were justifiable.
Sarah Morduck was not a woman of position, yet her accuser was punished, probably by a long imprisonment. It was a precedent that would be a greater safeguard to supposed witches than many acquittals. Justice Powell was not to wield the authority of Holt: yet he made one decision the effects of which were far-reaching. It was in the trial of Jane Wenham at Hertford in 1712.
But most of the other acquittals were quite as bad as most of the convictions to my mind. I can discover almost no trial where both sides had a full hearing, where the judges tried to get at the facts and kept their attention on the evidence, where the finding as the expression of the opinions rather than of the partiality of the Pontiffs.
With only one or two exceptions they related not to deaths from violence reported as having occurred on any particular day, but to notices of convictions, acquittals, indictments, pleas of guilty and not guilty, rewards offered, sentences, executions, "suspicions" of the police, "mysteries revived," and even editorials on capital punishment.
These considerations apply to all trials for homicide, notorious or otherwise, the results of which in New York County for ten years are set forth in the following table: YEAR CONVICTIONS ACQUITTALS CONVICTIONS ACQUITTALS PER CENT PER CENT 1901.........25............17..........60............40 1902.........31............11..........74............26 1903.........42.............8..........84............16 1904.........37............14..........72............28 1905.........32............13..........71............29 1906.........53............22..........70............30 1907.........39............10..........78............22 1908.........35............17..........67............33 1909.........43............11..........80............20 1910.........45............15..........75............25 TOTAL.......382...........138......Av. 74........Av. 27
Who does not recall sensational acquittals in which sympathy for the defendant or prejudice against the plaintiff carried away the feelings of the twelve good men and true? For them are the unwritten laws, for them the mingling of justice with race hatreds or with gallantry.
Their task was difficult, as anyone acquainted with the rambling, mumbling, confused and baffling character of plantation negro testimony will easily believe; and the convictions and acquittals were of course oftentimes erroneous. The remodeling of the system was one of the reforms called for by Southerners of the time but never accomplished.
I am quite certain that the more the question of crime and its treatment is studied the less faith men have in punishment. England and Continental Europe are often pointed to as examples of sure and speedy justice. The fact that there are more convictions and fewer acquittals in England in proportion to the number of trials does not prove that the English system is better than ours.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking