State v. Suter

Procedure is to law what the wheel is to a cart — a necessary factor. The importance of procedure to our society, functioning under a rule of law, was well illustrated by Curtis Bok in an address at the National Book Awards in New York City on January 26,1954. Bok said:

“In the whole history of law and order the longest step forward was taken by primitive man, when, as if by common consent, the tribe sat down in a circle and allowed one man to speak at a time. An accused who is shouted down has no rights whatever. Unless people have an instinct for procedure, their conception of basic human…