artisans for the
defendant. The constant association with the prosecutor, the officers of
the jail, the public officials, and those charged with enforcing the
law, would almost surely place them on the side of the state. Such men
must be elected or appointed by some tribunal. This brings them to the
attention of the public and makes them dependent on the public. The
expert's interest will then be the same as the interest of the
prosecutor and the judge.

The prosecuting attorney is not a partisan. His office is judicial. He
is not interested in convicting or paid for convicting, and yet, no sane
person familiar with courts would think that the defendant could be
safely left in his hands. Assuming he is honest, it makes little
difference. Almost no prosecutor dares do anything the public does not
demand. Neither, as a rule, has he training nor interest to study any
subject but the law. The profounder and more important matters affecting
life and conduct are a sealed book which he could not open if he would.
Very soon under our political system the expert business would gravitate
into the hands of politicians, the last group that should handle any
scientific problem. I am free to confess the difficulties of the present
system, but some other way may be even worse. It must always be
remembered that this country is governed by public opinion, that public
opinion is always crude, uninformed and heartless. In criminal cases
there is no time to set it right. The position of the accused is hard
enough at best. He is really presumed guilty before he starts. Every
lawyer employed to any extent in criminal practice knows that in an
important case his greatest danger is public opinion. He would not take
the officers and attaches of the court as jurors, although they might
be good men, for their interest and psychology would be always for
conviction.

If defendants were not regarded as moral delinquents, if the examination
implied no moral condemnation, if it was only a scientific investigation
as to where to place him if he is anti-social, if public opinion
supported this view, then experts should be appointed by the court. On
this phase of the case there would be little need of experts. I would be
willing to go further and say that then, too, the partisan lawyer, the
hired advocate, should disappear. The machinery of justice would be
all-sufficient to take care of the liberties of every man, to give him
proper treatment in disea