CRIMINAL MATTERS. 1. The mode of trial of criminal defendants of the same grade should be uniform in all courts. Now in a county court he is tried before six jurors, and in the superior court before twelve jurors for the same offence. 2. Certain statutes, prescribing punishment for, to wit: Sec. Code 4323, Murder; 4350, Rape; 4399, 4401, 4403, Cattle and Hog Stealing and Unlawfully Marking and Branding, should be so amended that the judge, in pleas of guilty, would have the same discretion in sentencing to the lowest penalty that juries now have on the trial. Pleas of guilty cannot now be entered in these cases unless the defendant is willing to undergo the maximum penalty. 3. Confinement in the common jail should be abolished as a punishment for crime. The jail should only be used for the detention of prisoners either before conviction, who are by our law presumed to be innocent citizens, or after conviction are known to be guilty. It is inconsistent to give a citizen presumed by law to be innocent the identical treatment you have prescribed as a punishment for the guilty. Besides, it is expensive to the counties to punish guilty men by boarding them in jail. The statutes that need amendment on this subject are: Sec. Code 4360, False Imprisonment. Sec. 4370, Shooting at Another. Sec. 4587, Fraudulently Obtaining Credit. 4600, The Wrongful Sale of Mortgaged Property. 4605, Destroying Books and Papers. 4481, Attempts to Rescue, and perhaps others. The balance of this paper may not be strictly in line with the subject, but its close relation might justify it being appended. The punishment for the following crimes should be reduced, to wit: Sec. 4367, 4368, Kidnapping, now four to seven years in the penitentiary, should be one to seven. Sec. 4424, Larceny after Trust, now one to five, should be within the discretion of the judge to inflict misdemeanor punishment under sec. 4310. Secs. 4455, 4454 and 4442, Forgery, should be reduced in the minimum to one year, and also in discretion of the court to punish under Sec. 4310. Secs. 4461, 4463 and 4465, Perjury, False Swearing, and Subornation of Perjury, should be reduced in the minimum to one year. Secs. 4479 and 4483, which are very defective, ought to prescribe punishment definitely, from one to twenty years. Sec. 4481 should be amended so as to allow court in its discretion to punish under sec. 4310. Sec. 4531, Bigamy, now two to four years, reduced in the minimum to one year. Sec. 4608, evidently a mistake, ought to be corrected. Sec. 4617, Punishing Obstructions to Public Highways, ought to include private ways, as they are as numerous and important. Sec. 4373, Abandonment of Children, should define this of fence, the allowing his children to suffer for necessaries of life, whether he be present or absent. These suggestions are made partly in view of our peculiar political conditions emanating from our different race citizenship. APPENDIX 5. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION AND REMEDIAL PROCEDURE. To the Georgia Bar Association: Your Committee on Judicial Administration and Remedial Procedure beg leave to submit the following report: At the last session of the Legislature an act was passed providing for the appointment of three citizens "learned in the law" to codify the laws of the State. His Excellency the Governor and the Justices of the Supreme Court, upon whom was placed the responsibility of selecting these codifiers, exercised a wise discrimination by naming Hon. John L. Hopkins, Hon. Clifford Anderson, and Hon. Joseph R. Lamar, all three of whom are members of this Association. The authority given to these codifiers is contained in the following words: "To codify and arrange in systematic and condensed form the laws in force in Georgia from whatever source derived, following the general plan and system of the Code of 1863 and subsequent revised editions thereof." From this it would appear that the codifiers are not empowered to make new law, though it would be competent for the Legislature to enact their report into law as was done in 1860. But they are required to do more than simply revise existing statute law. "To codify and arrange in systematic and condensed form the laws in force in Georgia from whatever source derived" will necessitate the omission of much that is in the Code, the addition of much that is not in the Code, and the harmonizing of all statutes with the construction placed upon them by decisions of the Supreme Court. This work of codification is of great importance to all classes and interests in the State, but none are more vitally concerned therein than the members of our own profession. The Code of 1863 was in many respects a marvelous piece of work, but necessarily contained many deficiencies. Numerous amendments by statutory enactment have been made since the adoption of the original Code, and in most instances these amendments have worked good and not bad results. There has been a continuous and gradual accretion to the body of our law, curing sometimes minor defects, and at other times making radical changes. It grew like the common law, by a sort of process of evolution, conforming itself to the practical needs of our people. It is not to be supposed that our laws as they now exist are perfect in their application even to our present conditions. Those remaining imperfections can be detected by none SO well as by those codifiers whose work and duty it is to subject every portion of the law to careful and microscopic examination. They will surely encounter many questions of grave doubt, and will discover many instances where supplementary or corrective legislation is needed, and upon some points they will probably find difficulty in reaching a true construction of certain decisions of the Supreme Court. In all these cases it is very important that certainty shall be definitely secured, and the chief purpose of this report is to suggest that the Bar Association of the State request the codifiers to make memoranda of defects of the character above pointed out and report them to the Legislature as a body, or present them in the shape of bills through some competent member of the Legislature in order that final action may be had upon them promptly at the next session, so as to have the changes properly incorporated in the new Code. * Your com mittee have no knowledge as to when the codifiers will have their work ready for submission to the Legislature. But we suggest that it would be well for the full and final report to be withheld until the second session of the Legislature of 1894 *Here Mr. Fleming said orally: "I will state just there, as an illustration, that one of the codifiers spoke to me upon this subject, and said that on examining the Code of Georgia he found seventeen different methods of condemning land; there was one for railroads, there was another for canals, and for various purposes of one character and another. It does seem that those seventeen methods could be reduced to one, or at least to a dozen." and 1895 in order that the Judiciary Committees of the House and the Senate may have opportunity at the first session to consider all recommendations received from the codifiers. By this course of procedure our new Code would be made more nearly perfect, and we feel sure that the gentlemen engaged in this difficult task will accept our suggestions in the same good spirit in which they are offered. Respectfully submitted, WM. H. FLEMING, Chairman, BRYAN CUMMING, WM. T. DAVIDSON, W. K. MILLER, C. HENRY COHEN. |