ABSTRACT
Interrogations according to criminologists must skirt around the fact, but not take a direct line to it. As long as depositions of a condemned offender do not arrive at a point where they obstruct the course of justice, why not make room in the interests of truth, even after the conviction and the extreme misery of the accused, the consideration of new evidence concerning the nature of the crime which may justify a new trial. Formality and ritual are necessary in the administration of justice because nothing should be left to the arbitrariness of the administrator, all of which promotes the idea to the people of a trial neither exciting nor interesting, but stable and regular, because men are imitators and slaves of habit and more easily impressed by sensations than by reasoning. These formalities and rituals must never be fixed by laws in a way that can harm the truth.
