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12 Panel 1 (1934)

handle is hein.journals/panelmbu12 and id is 1 raw text is: To increase the efficiency of the Grand jury Systen Th1 PANbL A Publication Devoted to the Exchange of Views of Public Oficials and Citizens in the Effort to Prevent Crime and Secure the True Administration of Justice PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF GRAND JURORS OF NEW YORK COUNTY The contributions and letters in The Panel are either credited to their authors or signed with the names or initials of their writers and the Editor assumes no responsibility for the opinions contained therein beyond expressing the views that the subjects they treat of are worthy of the attention of Grand Jurors. VOL. 12 JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1934 NO. 1 WORKING PROGRAM FOR IMPROVING CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE OFFERED BY ASSOCIATION OF GRAND JURORS AND THE PANEL By ROBERT APPLETON President, Association of Grand Jurors of New York County Lynchings are primarily due to loss of faith in the certainty and celerity of the criminal law and procedure. Strengthening criminal law and expedit- ing procedure are the best means for pre- venting lynchings and form, next to re- lief from the economic depression, the most important problem confronting the people of the United States. Defects in the criminal law and delays in procedure which all too often allow an offender backed by gangster terrorists, by political influence or by wealth to escape the consequences of a serious criminal act when obviously guilty, or to have punishment deferred until its deterrent effect upon others is lost, stimulate pre- meditated crime, endanger the lives and property of every person in the commu- nity and provide the basic cause for lynch- ings or private vengeance. No progress is possible in strengthen- ing the criminal law and in expediting procedure unless lay and legal organiza- tions and newspapers have definite pro- grams of concrete proposals to urge upon legislators and to put forward as major political issues in elections to State Legis- latures and to Congress. Having learned that from experience, the Association of Grand Jurors of New York County, publisher of THE PANEL, submits herewith a program of thirty-two points. It was read at the annual meeting of the Association in the Hotel Astor, New York City, on December 7, 1933, was approved on December 14 by the Board of Directors and was released to the newspapers of December 22, receiving extensive notices in news and editorial columns. The program does not profess to cover more than a fraction of the deficiencies in criminal law and procedure which enable the guilty to escape, and with every such escape incite weak characters to crime. Fifteen of the proposals or recommen- dations, constitute the program of the Association of Grand Jurors of New York County before the annual session of the New York Legislature which opened on January 3, 1934, and before subse- quent sessions. Twelve of the proposals or recommen- dations are general, applicable in many States, including New York, and to a certain extent in the Federal jurisdiction. Five of the recommendations are for action by Congress. All of the fifteen recommendations to the New York Legislature could be sub- mitted with equal force to the Legisla- tures of some States. A few of them have been met in some States. Those which have not been met in other juris- dictions should be as carefully considered in other States as if not segregated in the New York program of the Associa- tion of Grand Jurors of New York County. The need for such a definite program of concrete proposals was demonstrated after the publication in the November- December, 1933, issue of THE PANEL of an article entitled, Twenty Proposals for Improving Criminal Law and Pro- cedure, by Thomas S. Rice, LL.B., asso- ciate editor of THE PANEL, nationally known newspaper man and criminologist who served as a Governor's appointee on the statutory Crime Commission of New York State from 1926 to 1931. Mr. Rice had first submitted the proposals to Chairman Royal S. Copeland of the U. S. Sub-Committee on Racketeering as a wit- ness on August 15, 1933, in New York City. Several recommendations in that article, of which the present thirty-two point pro- gram of the Association is an enlarge- ment, have been adopted in the annual report of U. S. Attorney General Homer S. Cummings, published on January 5, 1934. Others will appear in the report of Robert Daru, of the New York Bar, volunteer counsel to the U. S. Subcom- mittee on Racketeering, composed of Senator Royal S. Copeland, New York, Chairman, and Senators Arthur H. Van- denberg, Michigan, and Louis Murphy, Iowa. The program is as follows: PROGRAM OF ASSOCIATION OF GRAND JURORS OF NEW YORK COUNTY BEFORE THE NEW YORK LEGISLATURE OF 1934. 1. Simplify perjury prosecutions but do not make perjury a misdemeanor. 2. Pass a false swearing law which would make false swearing a misdemeanor, to be joined, if advisable, as a second count in a perjury indictment or to be prosecuted as an independent offense. 3. Alibi Defense Law. Compel accused intending to offer an alibi defense to present to the prosecutor a bill of particulars of the alibi defense five days before trial as in Michigan, or three days before trial, as in Ohio, in both of which States the law has been highly effective in preventing perjured alibis and has wrought no injustice. 4. Simplify prosecutions of receivers of. sto!en goods. 5. Deny bail to accused persons caught with strong prima facie cases against them and having previous convictions of serious offenses. 6. Give defendant in criminal case right to waive jury trial, as Canada and some States of the Union, notably Maryland, do with satisfactory results. 7. Allow each side to impeach its own witness. 8. Reduce number of mandatory jury exemptions. 9. Reduce number of peremptory jury challenges.

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