Salt Lake Telegram | 1932-04-25 | Page 5 | Juries Shown Losing Status

VRIES SHOWN r S LOSING STATUS I f Declaring the relative Importance In n law enforcement of l th the jury system has decre decreased sed in n x fin America Jn rL n inverse ratio with the increasing in in- 10 Ceasing complexity of industrial life ie creasing article in the April issue of the W an an Bulletin presents the fol fol- noh Bar ar Utah lowing story in statistics on Salt Lake county Felonies for tor the last halt hall of 1929 approximated at based on Vet ere ere for the year and the result 51 by Alan Brown and Dorothy Doro Doro- of f a survey urvey Merrill Merrill students at the thy of Utah law school and Dr Adolph dolph LadrU Jensen also of the law school chool of the university showed how this total was affected by the jury ss s's tern tem Nine of the alleged felons were acquitted acquitted acquitted ac ac- ac- ac quitted by juries and twenty-seven twenty were convict convicted cd One was acquitted directed verdict This is a total I by byi a of 37 cases handled by juries out of the original 22 S However before belore the juries had a chance to get et to the cases case many things happened legally Only complaints were filed tiled the other not being accounted for Of the just 48 or per cent of those charged received guilty sentences sentences sentences' sen sen- Twenty-seven Twenty of them were convicted by juries and twenty-one twenty entered pleas of guilty S Of the remainder none of whom were cre found guilty of the alleged felonies felonies fel id onies oJ 44 were dismissed on the mation motion motion mo mo- tion of the prosecuting attorney Twenty eight entered pleas of guilty to lesser offenses and twenty five were discharged b by the courts ty five others were never neer in custod custody and nd no were filed against twenty-three twenty others Four were dismissed b by the courts on payment payment pay pay- ment of costs three were transferred to other courts and two forfeited bail The figures showed cases either d dismissed or resulting in convictions for Ies lesser er offenses or other action as compared with 48 convictions on the offense first charged The great bargaining power of or the offender in cases where the district attorney is doubtful as to whether he hec c cart can n establish the guilt of the accused Is emphasized in the figure showing 23 28 or per cent of the offenders were sentenced on pleas of guilty to misdemeanor charges Dr Jensen author of the article explains explains ex ex- plains that this is one of or sev several ral stories outlining salient facts learned from a study of present-day present administration administration administration adminis adminis- of criminal justice in in Utah with a 3 view to making some recommendations for improvement o of the ex existing Ung system I