The chief
distinction of the system we have inherited from England consists
in two things: first, the function of the advocate, and
second, that cases are decided not upon belief, but upon
proof. It has been found that court or jury are more likely
to get at truth if they have the aid of trained officers whose
duty it shall be to collect and present all the arguments on
each side which ought to be considered before the court or
jury reach the decision. The man who seems clearly guilty
should not be condemned or punished unless every consideration
which may tend to establish innocence or throw doubt upon
guilt has been fully weighed. The unassisted tribunal will
be quite likely to overlook these considerations. Public
sentiment approves the judgment and the punishment in the
case of John W. Webster. But certainly he should never have
been convicted without giving the fullest weight to his previous
character and to the slightness of the temptation to the commission
of such a crime, to the fact that the evidence was largely
circumstantial, to the doubt of the identity of the body of
the victim, and to the fact that the means or instrument of
the crime which ordinarily must be alleged and proved in cases
of murder could not be made certain, and could not be set
forth in the indictment.
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