Trapped by the Law's Delay
Antonio Bojar remains imprisoned longer than his sentence because of a stalled appeal process.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Antonio Bojar, an Italian man now confined in the county jail, has applied for a writ of habeas corpus. Bojar states that on January 16, he was compelled in self-defense to knock down one Adrian M. For this breach of the peace, he was arrested, and on June 20, 1892, he was sentenced to nine months in the county jail. He was not satisfied with the verdict and took an appeal to the supreme court, but from a lack of money and friends, he was unable to perfect it. In August of last year, he appealed to withdraw this appeal, but Judge Humes held that the court lost jurisdiction when the appeal was taken and would not consider the motion. Consequently, Bojar lay in jail pending the action of the supreme court. On the 20th of last month, the appeal was dismissed for lack of prosecution, and now the unfortunate man will have to begin serving out his nine months' sentence, notwithstanding he has already been in jail for a term longer than that to which he was sentenced.
“The unfortunate man will have to begin serving out his nine months' sentence, notwithstanding he has already been in jail for a term longer than that to which he was sentenced.”
Bojar’s plight illustrates the 'poverty penalty' within the justice system—how the inability to afford a lawyer or bond keeps individuals incarcerated for longer than their actual sentences. It reflects a recurring struggle in the American legal system regarding the accessibility of justice for non-English speakers and the poor.
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