“But suppose one is dissatisfied with his trial; what then?”
“He appeals it, as formerly; but with this knowledge and understanding: If the higher court finds him guilty, the penalty fixed by the lower court is doubled, provided such a sentence is possible.”
“Humph! I should think guilty people would hesitate about appealing.”
“Indeed they do. It is not often that an appealed case is decided against the appellant; and for the very reason you have advanced, that if guilty, they stand by the finding given in the lower court.”
“Does not this system give opportunities for bribery and jobbery?”
“The opportunities may exist, but the practice is one of the rarest crimes known in the calendar. The punishment for conviction of bribery of, or corruption in, a judge, is life imprisonment in the government prisons; and to the person accomplishing it, a similar sentence; while to attempt it is a twenty years’ offense.”
“Severe punishments, compared with those of former times,” was Cobb’s remark.
“Yes, very severe. But a good government needs and demands a good and true corps of judges to settle, justly, the individual disputes of its people, and to protect them in their lives, liberty and property.”
“I should imagine that the system is very expensive—the salary of so many judges?”