Books and Publications Received
| Published date | 01 September 1958 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1958.tb00495.x |
| Date | 01 September 1958 |
584
THE
MODERN LAW REVIEW
VOL.
31
It
is also
a
frightening nnd dramntic work: frightening, because
it
shows
up
the countless danger points in prescnt trial methods; dranintic,
as
soon ns
onc becotnes nwnrc, with
a
terrible shock, that for cacli case wlierc an crroncous
conviction stood eventunlly revealed
as
such, sometimes after niany years of
laborious investigation undertaken
at
private initiative and expcnsc, there must
be others which have gone (and nre going) unnoticed and wholly unrernedied.
Some of the chief defects and irregularities of procedure responsible for the
miscarringcs of justice recorded in Judge Jerome Frank’s
Not
Guilty
arc
admit-
tcdly peculiar to the United Stntes. Graft and overzenlousncss on the
part
of
the prosecution for instance nre fortunntely not matters which entcr largely
into our trinls, and when the authors state unequivocally that “it is coniinon
knowledge that the third degree, in recent years, lins been applied in almost
every stnte of the Union,” we can (let
us
hope) rejoice in the knowlcdge that
the “infnmy” of such police methods
is
spared
us
in this country.
Uut no such complncency
is
permissible when we come to consider tlie
sources of error which nre due, not to
a
deliberate flnunting of the guarantees
designed
to
ensure fnir criminal trials, but to inherent weaknesses of the
evidence by which proof of guilt
is
built
up
in
n
court of law.
It
hna often
been pointed out that jury trial and our rules of evidence
are
well calculated
to
expose the mendncious witness, but intrdequate
to
cope with tlie dangers
of testimony honestly given but vitiated by mistaken perception and/or
recollection. Thus, for instance, Judge Jerome Frank is
at
pains to point out
that “erroneous identificntion of the accused constitutes perhaps the major
cause of tlie known wrongful convictions,” and tlint
more
often than not, this
is
the result of nn “honest error” made by the witness. “Could such honest
mistakes be exposed during investigation before the trinl?
”
he nsks, and the
answer he gives is “YCS, in mnny instances.” And yct we know that under
the law
ns
it stands, in this country
as
well
as
in the United
States,
it is by
no
menns uncommon for false arrests to be carried out in almost blind reliance
upon the outcome of nn identifiention test or parade without making absolutely
sure that the desired result was not in one way
or
another suggested to the
witness and without fully convincing prior investigation into his accuracy
as
nn observer, his ability
to
see
and hear and reliability of his memory.
No
improvement in
our
methods of trial will make it possible to avoid
altogether erroneous convictions such
as
are described in this volume. Many
of them could not have conceivably occurred in this country, but
a
justified
pride in the superiority
of
our criminal trials over some
at
least which seem
to
tnke place in the United Stntes should not blind
us
to the mnny shortcomings
rnised in Judge Jerome Fmnk’s challenging posthumous work which may, con-
ceivably, even in this country, bring about that most nppnlling of calamities
:
a
miscarringe of justice.
H.
A.
HLWME14rANN.
Books
and
Publications Received
BELL’S
SALE
OF
FOOD
AND
DRUQS. 1st Service Issue.
1958.
Service, Binders and Cards.
El
8s.
Complete
Work
of
Service
Issue. Butterworth
&
Co.,
Publishers, Ltd.
26
18s.
net.
EMMET
ON
TITLE.
Fourteenth Edition. First Supplement to
February
28,
1058.
By
J.
GILCHRIST
SMITE,
LL.D.
The
Solicitors’ Law Stationery Society, Ltd.
xxx
and
108
pp.
15s.
net.
JOURNAL
OF
THE
INT~RNATIONAL
COMMISSION
OF
JURISTS.
Vol.
I,
No.
2.
Spring-Summer
1958.
EDITOR:
NORMAN
S.
MARSH,
47,
Buitcnhof, The Hague, Netherlands.
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