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28 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 804 (1953)
Criminal Procedure

handle is hein.journals/nylr28 and id is 814 raw text is: CRIMINAL PROCEDURE JAMES L. SLOAN JUSTICE and expediency were often at loggerheads in this arena during 1952, and justice sometimes came off second best. The bulk of miscarriages here had their origin in honest error, for the most part understandable and forgivable when viewed in the dilemmatic context of the problems posed for solution; some were attributable mainly to defective legislation, or judicial nearsightedness and servile adherence to anachronistic precedent, et cetera ejusdem generis. A few of the year's highlights, chosen at random, merit attention. PROCEDURE BEFORE TRIAL Arrest.-If the teeth of the law bit with equal vigor at lawman and outlaw alike, there might have been a blank space in the digests instead of State v. Warren. Officer H, without reasonable grounds or a warrant, entered a private home, charged the defendant, a maid there, with larceny, took her to jail, compelled her to submit twice to a search of her person, badgered her for five hours and threatened to keep her in jail until she confessed. She did. Her conviction based solely on the confession was reversed on appeal. But, what of Officer H.? In State v. Rousseau' the policeman making an illegal arrest was shoved into the path of an oncoming car by his resisting victim. Too drastic, of course.3 Obviously, the problem of what to do about illegal arrests was not solved in 1952. But there were encouraging signs. In place of hackneyed technical discussions, some very good practical studies were produced by the law reviews. Feasible suggestions included: (a) for the purpose of arresting without a warrant, all but a selected group of crimes should be treated as misdemeanors; (b) divest of jurisdiction over the case any magistrate before whom is brought a person under illegal arrest; (c) provide stiff criminal sanctions against the policeman for unlawful arrest; (d) require all magistrates to be law-trained.4 These are important factors, but first and fore- most there is needed higher caliber law enforcement personnel. Scholars have planted the seed. There is hope it will grow in the legislator's consciousness.5 JA Es L. SLOAN is a former Teaching Fellow at New York University School of Law, Assistant Attorney General of Arkansas and a Member of the Arkansas Bar. 1 235 N.C. 117, 68 S.E.2d 779 (1952). 2 40 Wash.2d 92, 241 P.2d 447 (1952). 3 The court so held. 4 See, e.g., Note, I00 U. OF PA. L. REv. 1182 (1952). 5 Perhaps in the same manner the law of privacy grew from ideas advanced in Brandeis and Warren, The Right to Privacy, 4 HAv. L. R v. 193 (1890). Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Law Review

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