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The Green Bag
criminals all the data concerning hered ity and personal history that was planned by the Institute three years ago. Effort for complete data, it was recommended, should be confined to selected individuals who may present themselves as pecu liarly interesting, significant or prac ticable for such investigation. The com mittee urged there should be con nected with the court a doctor of medi cine or a man whose training makes him proficient in the recognition of nervous and sensory disorders, with psy chological training to execute the anthropometrical, medical and psychologi cal examinations. Committee No. 3, on Criminal Statis tics, reported through John Koren of Massachusetts, chairman, that data col lected from the chief justice of every appellate and supreme court in the country show that a gradual change is taking place in criminal practice. It used to be in every state that every case of the grade of felony was pre sented by indictment. There are now twenty-four states in which criminal cases are prosecuted by information. Grand juries, while retaining all their former powers, do not exercise them. The responsibility for investigating an alleged crime rests on the district attor ney. Reports were also received from Com mittee D, on the Organization of Courts; Committee C, on Judicial Pro bation and Suspended Sentence; Com mittee E, on Criminal Procedure; Com mittee B, on Insanity and Criminal
Responsibility, and the committees on co-operation with other organizations, translation of European treatises, and state societies and membership. In addi tion, many reports by committees of the Wisconsin branch were received. A plea for simplicity in the instruc tions of a judge to a jury was made by Justice Charles A. DeCourcy of Massachusetts. The "long-winded present instruction, replete with compound legal phrases, only tends to confuse the average jury man," he contended, whereas a brief and simple charge in words almost bordering on the "language of the street" would make the meaning more plain. As a whole, the annual meeting is accounted one of unusual success. Deci sive steps have been taken, it is be lieved, that will have strong bearing on the desire for progressive and uni form laws in the several states, and it is believed that official opinion expressed as to needed improvement in criminal procedure will have good effect through out the country. The officers chosen are: President, Orrin N. Carter, Chicago, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois; vicepresidents, Charles A. DeCourcy, Lawrence, Mass.; Franklin L. Randall, St. Cloud, Minn.; Charles R. Henderson, Chicago, Ill.; Robert W. McClaughry, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; Jane Addams, Chicago; treasurer, Bronson Winthrop, New York; secretary, Eugene A. Gilmore, Madison, Wis.; executive Board, John B. Winslow, Madison, Wis.; Chief Justice William Gemmill, Chicago; Edward J. McDermott, Louisville; George W. Kirchwey, Columbia University; Edwin M. Abbott, Philadelphia.
