Stage of the Legal System
In both 1900 and 1920, The Evening Journal would report assault cases primarily during the charging stage of the legal system. This would emphasize the accusations rather than the full legal process. This stage is brief as it would involve having a judge hand out the fines and impose prison time if the judge saw fit. This would feed into the sensationalism that The Evening Journal leans into.
The penalties given out follow what was seen with the statutes that Delaware enacts with fines being the most common penalite given. Imprisonment was seen in cases that involved intent to murder and in cases where the assault was deemed excessive by the judge.
Most headlines would include the fine to encourage readers to read the article and find out what would cause such a high fine. This can be seen in the articles “Twenty Five and Costs” and “Three Months in Jail” in the year 1900.
In 1920 the paper would move away from putting the fines in headlines but would still include them in the article. This can be seen in the article “Slurring Remarks Lead to Assault” as the headline does not include the fine but the article does inform the reader of the fine imposed upon the offender.