Some will wish to accomplish their
common object by one kind of verbal ambiguity, some by another; some by
laws clearly enough (to them) unconstitutional, others by contradictory
statutes, or statutes secretly repealing wholesome ones already existing.
A clear, simple and just code would deprive them of their means of
livelihood and compel them to seek some honest employment.
So great are the uncertainties of the law in Tortirra that an eminent
judge once confessed to me that it was his conscientious belief that if
all cases were decided by the impartial arbitrament of the _do-tusis_ (a
process similar to our "throw of the dice") substantial justice would be
done far more frequently than under the present system; and there is
reason to believe that in many instances cases at law are so decided--but
only at the close of tedious and costly trials which have impoverished the
litigants and correspondingly enriched the lawyers.
Of the interminable train of shames and brutalities entailed by this
pernicious system, I shall mention here only a single one--the sentencing
and punishment of an accused person in the midst of the proceedings
against him, and while his guilt is not finally and definitively
established. It frequently occurs that a man convicted of crime in one of
the lower courts is at once hurried off to prison while he has still the
right of appeal to a higher tribunal, and while that appeal is pending.
After months and sometimes years of punishment his case is reached in the
appellate court, his appeal found valid and a new trial granted, resulting
in his acquittal.
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