



Produced by ellinora, Graeme Mackreth and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)










THE PRISONER AT THE BAR


BOOKS BY ARTHUR TRAIN




 THE PRISONER AT
 THE BAR

 SIDELIGHTS ON THE ADMINISTRATION
 OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

 BY
 ARTHUR TRAIN
 Assistant District Attorney, New York County

 SECOND EDITION
 REVISED AND ENLARGED

 NEW YORK
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
 1915




 Copyright, 1906, 1908, by
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

[Illustration]




 To
 ETHEL KISSAM TRAIN




PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION


The favorable reception accorded to the "Prisoner at the Bar," not
only in the United States but in England, and the fact that it has
won a place in several colleges and law schools as a reference book,
and in some instances as a sort of elementary text-book upon criminal
procedure, have resulted in a demand for a new edition. When the book
was written the author's sole intention was to present in readable form
a popular account of the administration of criminal justice. Upon its
publication he discovered to his surprise that it was the only book of
its exact character in the English language or perhaps in any other.
Reviewers pointed out that whereas there were annotated text-books
of criminal procedure and isolated articles on special topics, most
of them relating to the jury system, there was in existence no other
sketch of criminal justice as a whole, from arrest to conviction, based
upon either actual experience or hearsay.

This new edition has been indexed and is supplied with cross-references
to other works on allied subjects. A chapter has been added upon
"Insanity and the Law," and such statistics as the book contains have
been brought down to date. It is satisfactory to add that these show a
greatly increased efficiency in the jury system in criminal cases in
New York County, and that the tabulations of an eight years' experience
as a prosecutor only serve to confirm the conclusions set forth in the
first edition.

The author desires to express his thanks to Prof. John H. Wigmore, of
the Northwestern University Law School, for his many kind suggestions
and flattering references to this book in his masterly work upon the
law of evidence; to Augustin Derby, Esq., of the New York bar, who
most unselfishly gave much time to the examination of references, and
voluntarily undertook the ungrateful task of compiling the index; and
to those many others who, by comment or appreciation, have made a
second edition necessary.

 _Bar Harbor, Me._,
 Sept. 1, 1908.




PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION


The prisoner at the bar is a figure little known to most of us. The
newspapers keep us steadily informed as to the doings of all sorts of
criminals up to the time of their capture, and prison literature is
abundant, but just how the criminal becomes a convict is not a matter
of common knowledge. This, however, does not prevent the ordinary
citizen from expressing pronounced and, frequently, vociferous opinions
upon our methods of administering criminal justice, in the same way
that he stands ready at any time to criticise the Darwinian theory,
free trade or foreign missions. Full knowledge of any subject is
inevitably an impediment to forcible asseveration. Generalities are
easy to formulate and difficult to disprove. The man who sits with his
feet up and his chair tilted back in the "drummer's" hotel will inform
you that there is no such thing as criminal justice and that the whole
judiciary, state and federal, is "owned" or can be bought; you yourself
doubtless believe that the jury system is a failure and successfully
evade service upon it; while your neighbor is firmly convinced that
prosecutors secure their positions by reason of their similarity to
bloodhounds and retain them by virtue of the same token.

The only information available to most people on this exceedingly
important subject is that offered by the press, and the press (save
in the case of sensational murder trials) usually confines itself
to dramatic accounts of the arrest of the more picturesque sort of
criminals, with lurid descriptions of their offences. The report or
"story" concludes with the statement that "Detective-Sergeant Smith
immediately arraigned his prisoner (Robinson) before Magistrate Jones,
who committed the latter to jail and adjourned the hearing until the
following Tuesday." This ends the matter, and the grewsome or ingenious
details of the crime having been served up to satisfy the public
appetite, and the offender