Men who have been guilty of a crime like rape or murder, should be visited with swift and certain punishment and the just effort made by the courts t… - Theodore Roosevelt

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Men who have been guilty of a crime like rape or murder, should be visited with swift and certain punishment and the just effort made by the courts to protect them in their rights should under no circumstances be perverted into permitting any mere technicality to avert or delay their punishment. The substantial rights of the prisoner to a fair trial must, of course, be guaranteed, as you have so justly insisted that they should be; but, subject to this guarantee, the law must work swiftly and surely and all the agents of the law should realize the wrong they do when they permit justice to be delayed or thwarted for technical or insufficient reasons. We must show that the law is adequate to deal with crime by freeing it from every vestige of technicality and delay.