CRIMINAL APPEALS IN SOUTHERN STATES

Authors

Abstract

The attitude of American courts of last resort toward criminal convictions in the lower courts would be expected to have a pronounced effect on the number of appeals resorted to and the general respect of lawyers and criminals for decisions in original proceedings. The willingness of our supreme courts to hear appeals on technical and illusory grounds has often been compared most unfavorably, as in 51 AM.. L. REV. 239, with the informality and efficiency of appeals in other Anglo-Saxon countries. See, for example, 7 JOUR. OF CRIM. LAW, 17. Dean Roscoe Pound is quoted in 2 JOUR. OF CRIM. LAW, 34, as saying: "Our appellate courts do not try the cases, they only try the record; they only decide whether all the outworn subordinate rules of the game are carefully observed." Even if we ignore the effects of delay on the administration of justice, we must still recognize the tentative and conditional effect given to convictions where the possibility of reversal becomes considerable.

Recommended Citation

CRIMINAL APPEALS IN SOUTHERN STATES, 21 Mich. L. Rev. 584 (1923).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol21/iss5/7