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Show By Richard J. Moughan. BS, LLB . .To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. as-pect. The relation is mutual. Philocophy of History By Hegel 1770-1831 At the close of the last column I mentioned that two more of the aspects of the affair at the Salt Lake City Police and Traffic Tr-affic Court would wo-uld be discus- i sed in this week's we-ek's column Certain comments com-ments in the press pr-ess and various discussions byj some groups of s zw - I ('- ' A K :". .;. .- I ;' vV:" : uzd. date. The use of the continuance in the criminal court arose as a matter of necessity and justice. It is a tool of procedure pro-cedure without which the courts could not properly function. Continuances may be had for a variety of reasons, all of which have been blessed by the pronouncements of appellate ap-pellate courts and judges, from a time "to which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." The continuance has been honored in its practice because it is a necessary item. Some of the reasons for granting, grant-ing, or seeking a continuance are the following: A party may not be prepared for trial, there may be an absence of papers or documents which are necessary ne-cessary to the trial of the case a person's counsel may be absent because of his own illness, the illness of a relative, his death, or the death of a relative, a party to the action may be absent because of the same reason, there may be prejudice or excitement regarding re-garding the cause which would prevent a fair trial, there may be other matters pending which require the presence of parties or counsel. These reasons for a continuance take on different light under different dif-ferent circumstances, and whether a continuance should be granted or denied is one which requires the .specialized function of the court, and no other Why Is A Charge Reduced? A charge is reduced for two primary reasons, they are (1) The defendant has been im- citizens have Mr. Maughan focused attention atten-tion on these two important parts of the trial of a caiminal action - they are, Continuances and Reductions, i.e., reducing a charge to one of a less serious nature. From some comments in the press one could only infer that the continuances and reductions could not be justified. justi-fied. Whether they were, or were not justified should not be left to inference if one wants to seek a just conclusion. If the facts surrounding the situation which exists at the police and traffic court had been made known at the time all the charges were made, one could well understand why there would arise some instances .which would not meet with the approval of everyone. One could well understand why there would arise instances which would not meet with the approval of less than all, or any fraction of all. In view of the facts, the actions of the prosecutor, the judge, or the clerk could not justly be condemned. con-demned. , THE FACTS In the 12 months of last year, 1957, there were approxi. mately Two Hundred Ninety-three Ninety-three Thousand (293,000) individual cases which were processed through the Salt Lake Police and Traffic Court. This astronomical number of different matters were all handled by one judge, one prosecutor, and one clerk! That number of different matters, if heard in 313 days, would require 936 of them to be disposed of daily. To take advantage of a situation of this kind of heap opprobrium upon the head of a prosecutor, criticize a judge or a clerk, for some few deviations from what some well, or otherwise, meaning individual determines to be the norm, is manifest injustice. There is no man who would not make mistakes, pressed by such a volume of case matters. It only leaves one to wonder at the paucity of mistakes made by the one prosecutor, the one judge, and the one clerk. CONTINUANCES f A continuance, as its name implies, is the succession of a state, course, or matter; it is an extension. In law its epecific meaning is a postponement post-ponement of a matter to another properly charged. (2) The prosecutor does not have sufficient evidence to convict, or justify a trial" of the matter. It is not unusual for a defendant to be brought into in-to court under a charge that cannot be justified. Confronted with a situation of this kind, . it is the clear duty of the prosecutor to recommend that the charge be reduced or dismissed, dis-missed, and the clear duty of the judge to grant the re- duction or dismissal. Of more frequent occurance is the situation where the prosecutor finds himself facing the task of trying a cause which cannot be proved against the defendant. This is a case where the charge may have been fairly made, but for any one of a thousand reasons the evidence with which to prove the charge cannot be had. In the face of a situation of this conviction, or reduce the charge and accept a plea of guilty prosecutors, at one time or from the defendant? Most all another have ' thought it best to do just that. See you next week. . |