Melville Davisson Post

“ The moment a capital crime occurs, the criminal employs the ablest counsel he can get. The relatives of the dead man, if they are important persons, retain the best lawyer they can find to assist the public prosecutor, and the game begins.
The first move is to bring the prisoner before an examining magistrate, in order to have him committed to jail to await the action of the grand jury. This examining magistrate is almost always an official that the public prosecutor can control. One was recently asked to separate the witnesses before him. ”

“ If the judge says the indictment is all right, the question of setting the date for the trial comes up. So far, then, the players have been merely getting ready for the game. Now that the game is determined on, one side wishes to play it at once and the other to put it off as long as possible. Public interest wanes, witnesses drift out of the country and are lost sight of, and the chances increase in favor of the prisoner. ”

“ In order to get the surgeon's opinion as an expert witness, when he has no direct knowledge of the case, one must suppose a case that is just exactly like the real one, and then ask his opinion about the supposed case. ”

“ The object of this paper is to charge the accused with the greatest crime that his criminal act can be construed to fit; for it is a greater renown to the player for the state to hang his man than to have him sentenced to penal service. And the prosecuting attorney must so draw this paper that it will not be subject to any controlling technical objection that the counsel for the prisoner may be able to find in the record of any criminal trial running back through all the law books to the reports of the King's Bench. ”