Publication information |
Source: Fort Smith Times Source type: newspaper Document type: editorial Document title: “Failed After All” Author(s): anonymous City of publication: Fort Smith, Arkansas Date of publication: 27 September 1901 Volume number: 20 Issue number: 46 Pagination: [2] |
Citation |
“Failed After All.” Fort Smith Times 27 Sept. 1901 v20n46: p. [2]. |
Transcription |
full text |
Keywords |
Leon Czolgosz (legal defense); Robert C. Titus; Loran L. Lewis; Leon Czolgosz (trial: criticism). |
Named persons |
Leon Czolgosz; Loran L. Lewis; Robert C. Titus. |
Document |
Failed After All
When the two learned ex-judges Titus and Lewis
who undertook, by the appointment of the court, the defense of the murderer
Czolgosz, all right thinking men applauded their high sense of duty in the discharge
of an unpleasant task.
It is sad to relate that they did not merit that
respect to the end of their task. J udge [sic] Titus pretended to make an argument
in behalf of his client. He said nothing about his client but devoted all his
argument to a defense of himself for accepting the appointment as defending
counsel. He was not on trial either before the court or at the bar of public
opinion. If he was ashamed of his position and did not intend to do the best
he could he should have declined the appointment.
Judge Lewis did a shade better, he didn’t have
anything at all to say, beyond this, that his colleague had fully represented
his sentiments. True, they could never have acquitted their client, and nobody
wanted them to succeed, but they could have made a show of spirit. If they accepted
the appointments from a sense of duty, that sense of duty should have compelled
them to do something besides making an unnecessary defense of themselves.
Having acepted [sic] the appointments from the
court it was in bad taste to apologize to the court for accepting.