505 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Reading Time: 3 minutes [368 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

WILLIAM WEMUS AND SEVEN OTHERS. 473

Quod dubitas ne feceris; where you are doubtful, never act; that is, if you doubt the prisoner's guilt, never declare him guilty. This is always the rule, especially in cases of life. Another rule from the same author is that in some cases, presumptive evidence goes so far as to prove a person guilty, though there is no express proof of the fact having been committed by him. However, it must be very warily pressed, for it is better that five guilty persons should escape unpunished than that one innocent person should die.

The next authority shall be from another judge of equal character, considering the age in which he lived: Chancellor Fortescue, writing in praise of the laws of England. This is a very ancient writer on English law. His words are: "Indeed, one would rather, much rather, that twenty guilty persons escape the punishment of death than one innocent person be condemned and suffer capitally." Lord Chief Justice Hale says it is better that five guilty persons escape than one innocent person suffer. Lord Chancellor Fortescue, you see, carries the matter further and says, indeed, one had rather, much rather, that twenty guilty persons should escape than one innocent person suffer capitally. Indeed, this rule is not peculiar to English law; there never was a system of laws in the world in which this rule did not prevail. It prevailed in the ancient Roman law, and, which is more remarkable, it prevails in the modern Roman law. Even the judges in the courts of inquisition, who, with racks, burnings, and scourges, examine criminals, preserve it as a maxim that it is better the guilty should escape punishment than the innocent suffer: Sativa esse nocentem absolvi quam insentem damnari. This is the temper we ought to set out with, and these are the rules we are to be governed by. And I shall take it for granted, as a first principle, that the eight prisoners at the bar had better be all acquitted, though we should admit them all to be guilty, than that any one of them should by your verdict be found guilty, being innocent.