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1 Tex. L. Rev. 188 (1922-1923)
Suspended Sentence and Adult Probation

handle is hein.journals/tlr1 and id is 190 raw text is: THE SUSPENDED SENTENCE AND ADULT PROBATION For several years there has been a more or less urgent de- mand in some quarters for the repeal of the Suspended Sen- tence Law. The matter was brought forcibly to the atten- tion of the Legislature by Governor Neff in his messages to the Thirty-seventh Legislature,' in 1921, and in his message to the Thirty-eighth Legislature, on January 15, 1923, he renewed his recommendation that the law be repealed.2 The strength and cogency of the Governor's reasoning is freely admitted, and with the views expressed the present writer would be very strongly inclined to agree if there was no alternative offered us other than to keep the law in its present form or to shovel it into the junk pile, as the Governor forcefully expresses it. But there is no reason to think that we are forced to choose between outright repeal on thel one hand and the retention of the present law with all its defects, on the other; and the object of the present paper is to point out from the laws and experience of other states that our law may be so amended or recast and its administration so improved as to make it a valuable social agency. PROVISIONS OF THE SUSPENDED SENTENCE LAW OF TEXAS Before going further it will be well to present a brief sum- mary of the law as it now stands. The first suspended sen- tence law, passed by the Legislature in 1911, was held un- 'HousE JoURNAL, 37 Leg., Reg. Sess., p. 316; HousE JOURNAL, 37 Leg., 1st and 2nd Called Sess., pp. 15-17. 2We have had in this State since 1913, what is known as the Sus- pended Sentence Law. It permits the jury to convict a person and at the same time set the verdict aside. Texas is the only State in the Union that permits a jury to find a person guilty and at the same time release him from punishment. The purpose that prompted the passage of the law was good. The practical workings of the law prove it a failure. It is an incubator for evil-doers. It makes of the law a shield for crime. It furnishes a loophole through which convicted criminals escape. It undermines the law. It robs the courthouse of its power, respect, and dignity. It produces criminals . . . Let us take lawless- ness out of our laws and give them a deterrent influence . . . The Suspended Sentence Law should be repealed and shoveled into the junk pile. HousE JoURNAL, Jan. 15, 1923, p. 102.

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