The meaning of the terms used are too well known to require much explanation. "Discharged" are those in which, after trial, the court decided for the defendant. The Municipal Court has no jurisdiction to impose judgment in a felony case, even if the defendant enters a plea of guilty; so the "bound-over cases" in Table 9 include those in which there was a plea of guilty. This table shows that only 87 out of 683 cases resulted in the discharge of the defendant; and that, out of 555 cases which were heard, 468 were bound over to the grand jury, indicating, in the light of the results of the cases in the grand jury and county court, either that the mill of the Municipal Court does not perform its sifting functions efficiently, or that the cases are not well prepared.

TABLE 9.-STATE EXAMINATIONS, MUNICIPAL COURT, 1919-20; DISPOSITION OF CASES CLASSIFIED BY CHARGES

Attention should now be given the practice in those types of disposition whereby, without trial, cases are dropped or dismissed by or at the instance of the prosecutor, or he and the court accept a plea of guilt of a lesser offense than that charged. Tables 1, 2, and 3 show 1.47 per cent. of the city cases, 0.97 per cent. of state misdemeanors, and 1.78 per cent. of state examinations are "no papered," and 7.70 per cent., 4.57 per cent., and 7.95 per cent., respectively, are "nolled." In city and state misdemeanor cases there are, practically speaking, no degrees of offenses, and nothing to be gained by a plea of guilt of a lesser or different offense. If the charge be a felony, however, acceptance of plea of guilt of a lesser offense gives the Municipal Court jurisdiction to impose a fine or short imprisonment in a workhouse or other milder place of detention as compared with more lengthy confinement in the penitentiary if the defendant be ultimately found guilty of the felony.

As shown by Table 3, these lesser pleas were accepted in 1.15 per cent. of the state felony cases. A study of the time which elapses between arrest and the "nolle" disclosed that in city cases there was an average of 12.5 days, and in state misdemeanors, of 11.3 days.

Numerous situations arise which justify the dropping of cases without trial, and there is nothing illegitimate or necessarily suspicious about the "nolle" of a case. Nor are these percentages on their face necessarily excessive. But this power of the prosecutor is so dangerous, so fraught with possibilities of carelessness or corruption, that, both for the sake of the administration of justice and for the protection of the prosecutor himself against unjust suspicions, it is of the utmost importance that its exercise be surrounded with all practical safeguards.

"No PAPERS" OR "NO-PAPERING"

The expression "no papers" needs explanation. When an arrest is made prior to issuance of an affidavit, the case goes upon the docket and is therefore called in court. If the prosecutor decides at that early stage that the provable facts do not justify bringing any charge, no affidavit is issued, and, when the case is called in court, he responds that there are "no papers," and that is the end of the case. In "nolled" cases, on the other hand, the affidavit has been issued-that is, a charge has been made, and the "nolle" represents the determination on the part of the prosecution that, though the situation may have justified the making of a charge and filing of an affidavit, the absence of adequate proof or some other situation makes it just or advisable to drop the case at that point. The word "nolle" is an abbreviation of nolle prosequi, meaning "I am unwilling to prosecute."

This "no-papering" procedure has no statutory basis. No such procedure is mentioned in the statutes or recognized in common law criminal procedure. Consequently the law does not throw safeguards around its exercise, and, as actually practised in the Municipal Court, the prosecutor simply announces "no papers" without stating any reason, and the court hears nothing and does nothing except note "no papers" on the docket. An experienced official connected with the Municipal Court, when asked to explain the sort of situation in which "no-papering" was applied, answered: "If Burns is arrested and when the officer comes down here he finds that somebody knows Burns and that he has lived around Cleveland for a while, is a pretty good fellow, and will probably never be in trouble again, we simply decide never to go ahead with the case, and the case is marked 'no papers.'"

In almost all "no-papered" cases it is apparent that the trial prosecu

tor has no information as to the reasons for dropping the case, and simply accepts the word of the police officer. As a matter of fact, therefore, somebody in the police department, and not the court or prosecutor, makes the decision. Neither in the records or papers of the court nor in the files of the prosecutor's office is any statement or notation whatever made as to the reasons for "no-papering" the case. The reason, if ascertainable at all, is to be found only in the memory either of the police officer who gave the tip to the trial prosecutor to "no paper" the case, or in the memory of the office prosecutor who gave the tip to the police officer to give the tip in turn to the trial prosecutor.

NOLLES

The statutes of Ohio contain no provision regulating practice in entering of nolles in the Municipal Court. Section 2919 of the General Code of Ohio prohibits the county prosecutor from entering a nolle without leave of court and without good cause shown in open court. There is no corresponding provision for the municipal prosecutor or Municipal Court. Naturally, the court can exercise some control, but even where the law prescribes consent of the court, the prosecutor is most instrumental in determining the question, for the court is necessarily dependent upon the prosecutor's statement of facts upon which a nolle is based. And in the hurly-burly of the Municipal Court nolles requested or suggested by the prosecutor are granted as a matter of course.

The nolle sometimes takes place during the trial of the case, when the developments at the trial suggest to the prosecutor that the provable facts are not sufficient, and sometimes the judge himself suggests a nolle. No record or notation is made, however, as to the reasons for the nolle nor at whose instance it was allowed.

In other cases the nolle is announced by the trial prosecutor just as the case is called. If he knows of the reasons, he seldom states them, and generally he acts upon word from the police officer in the case or from one of the office prosecutors. It is quite possible that he might have reasons of his own of which no one else knows and which are communicated to no one else. Whether the determination to "nolle" the case has its birth with the trial prosecutor, police officer, or an office prosecutor, there is no memorandum of such reasons made, with the exception that in cases of death or personal injury arising out of traffic violations there is some sort of a vague requirement that the reason for dropping the case be noted on the so-called "yellow card" in the police department. As we shall soon see, the rule is indefinite and its observance irregular.

There is no regulation whereby permission to "nolle" the case is required from the chief prosecutor. For a short time after he came into office present Prosecutor Bell considered the enactment of such a regulation, but decided that he did not have the necessary clerical assistance.

In addition to the general statistics for 1919 and 1920, an intensive study was made of cases "no-papered" and "nolled" between January 17 to 31, 1921. These were the two weeks which preceded the commencement of this survey, and sufficiently recent to test the practice. Following is a list of these cases:

The prosecutor and his assistants were asked to give the reasons for

dropping these cases. In practically none of them were they able to remember the reason. This was quite natural in view of the enormous number of cases handled. In none of them, however, did they go to any record for the answer. They described, in an abstract manner, various types of recurring situations which they treat as justifying the entering of a nolle, but did not concretely, by means of their recollection or reference to a record, bring any of these cases within these types. They did state that in manslaughter, personal injury, or property damage cases arising out of traffic accidents, reasons were noted upon the yellow sheet of the case in the police department. This trail was then followed:

The policeman making the arrest, making the investigation, or taking the complaint, if the case starts with a complaint to the police department, makes out a report with an original and three carbon copies. The original is white, two of the carbons are pink, and one carbon is yellow. The white copy goes to the record room at the central station. One of the pink copies is kept as a permanent record in the precinct. The other pink copy goes either to the city law department or to the detective bureau or to any other department which might be particularly interested in the case. The yellow copy is kept at the precinct and posted on a board. These yellow sheets include all sorts of complaints and reports, including petit larceny, theft of automobiles, unlocked doors, etc.

If the case be a traffic case, then, when it comes on for hearing in the