Show THE COURTS CHARGE TO THE JURY aliey disagree seven to five the following report of the trial of D levans charged with perjury in idaho is taken from the salt lake herald of tuesday last idaho placed upon her statute books what is well known as the oath this section of law was passed for the purpose of preventing members of the mormon church from voting at all elections held in the territory before any man could have his name entered upon the registration beoka prior to any election this oath compelled him to swear or affirm that he was not a member of any order organization or association which teaches advises counsels or encourages its member devotees or any other person to commit the crimes of bigamy or polygamy or any other crime defined by law as a duty arising from membership in such order organization or association or which practices bigamy or polygamy or plural marriage as a doctrinal rite of such association As the members of the above named church or organization declare that they no longer practice these so called crimes cor does the church teach advise counsel or en conrge its members to do such things a largo of persons last october declared they did not belong to any such an organization and were placed upon the registration lists the result was they were arrested fo perjury and the first case was placed en trial at malad last tuesday morning wo are enabled to give below the gist and most important testimony which was offered at the trial wednesday and nearly the entire day of thursday was taken up in procuring a jury this matter was finally accomplished at about 3 in the afternoon and after he examination of one or two witnesses court adjourned until friday morning following are the names of those who composed the jury john hurst james thomas E F munn john Ya benjamin curtis 0 J godsman W A bonnett 0 P andersen eli eichardt Eich ards F S bailey W D evans james willis at the opening of court on friday morning judge berry announced that all was in readiness to proceed with the case of david L evans indicted for perjury in that ho ho was not a member of tho mormon church and in taking the electors oath registering and voting at the election held last fall L M earl was the first witness called he testified that he was acting registrar of malad precinct on the day of october 1888 and the defendant took the electors oath and registered before the said registrar on that day R H davia was called on behalf of the prosecution ho said he was somewhat acquainted with what is commonly known in this country as the mormon church he recognized the book in hand as a volume of the doctrine and covenants certain parts of the book were asked to be introduced in evidence mr kawlins on the part of the defendant objected to the admission of the evidence after considerable discussion the objection was over ruled bishop george fc said I 1 am bishop of malad the excommunication paper of D L evans was in his handwriting the caper was presented to him on the evening of the of october 1888 chero were a number of others presented to him on the same day hn it tended a meeting on that day mr evans was then a member of the church he remembered that judge laerry had rendered a decision ho never said anything publicly or privately regarding the cutting off of members he did not say that the cormons would vote if he was obliged to cut off every member in the with the exception of himself aud hia two counselors between thirty and forty resignation papers presented to him on the there were four others presented to him about ten days bo fore the witness has been bishop about ten or twelve years ho had accepted between fifteen and twenty resignations durin that time prior to october ho could cot remember more than two A W and one other the defendant was of the CO OD store on the cross examined defendants papers were the last presented to him on that day defendant has not as a member of the church inco october he has not parl any tithing he had never held any office in the charch had known the defendant about fifteen years defendant to the knowledge of witness had never held any office or belonged to the seventies did not know tho out any inducements to have people vote prior to the election the president of the stake was the officer abobo the bishop of the church the bishop reported to the higher authorities in writing twice a year the report contained the names of those excommunicated the clerk of the church now has the book containing them redirect re direct examination asked as to whether he had the tithing record of his ward the bishop said that he had them with him he closed his tithing accounts on the last of december the coop co op store did not pay any tithing D L evans did not pay any he paid tithing two years ago did not pay one cant last year the church owed the coop co op store between five and six hundred dollars li ii and C B evana two brothers of the defendent paid their own tithing there was not a single man who with drew from the church on tho that has paid any tithing since not one of them has been recognized as a member of the church since that time fred E jones clerk of the church I 1 know bishop stuart I 1 gaspre sent at the church when there was talk of cutting off members the bishop said they would vote heard him say they would not lose any of their yi leges cross examined he thought the meeting waa after judge barrys berrys decision bad been rendered A large number af pf resignation papers was here presented tho prosecution endeavoring to prove that they berell written by the defendant D L evans henry B evans ex auditor and recorder testified that the writing very much resembled that of the de end ant E W colton was called and eaid they wore all written by himself the prosecution desired to put the lapera in evidence they were all the same day october 27 the last day of registration the papers were admitted in evidence but with the understanding that thoy were not written by the defendant B T owens was sworn he was acquainted with what is commonly known m this country as the mormon church he had been an evangelist or missionary of such church was ac quieted with the doctrines and principles of said church the bible book of mormon and doctrine and covenants were works of euch church THE DEFENSE daniel tovey county treasurer testified that he lived in malad had lived in this community about twenty years he bad known the defendant for ten or twelve years he knew the reputation for truth and veracity lie mr evans the defendant to of good peter frederickson had resided in malad nineteen years had known tho defendant ever sinco I 1 know the reputation of for truth and veracity to be good cross examined have never heard his reputation spoken of win P jones probate judge have lived in malad about twenty years I 1 know D L evans well know his reputation for truth and veracity to be good cross examined yes have heard his reputation spoken of L M earl lived in malad nearly two years prior to about four months ago knew D L evans during that time know his reputation for truth and veracity to be first class could trust aud place confidence in anything he might say david L evans the defendant was sworn he left the church on the of october 1888 had lived here thirteen or fourteen years was not recognized as a member of the church four years ago he had never taken any active part in church matters he acted according to his own feelings in leaving it was his intention and still in that he does not desire to be a member of the church he believed the action taken by himself on october completely severed his connection from the church he was not at a meeting in this city with parkinson and others he heard there was such a meeting but he know nothing that transpired there he know george parkinson who was horo the of october went with parkinson to visit the registrar parkinson wanted to know of the registrar what stops he should take in regard to registering he also visited lapray tho register of dayton precinct in this city parkinson was with him have known parkinson ten or twelve years he took no part in advising parsons t register or vote never wrote out any resignation papers but his own he did not endeavor to influence any one to register or vote he deferred registering until so late for the reason that he was so well known and he thought probably others would follow his example if he registered early in the morning cross examined am well acquainted quain ted with the history of tho territory and affairs generally in this county was first baptized in brigham city utah L considered myself a member of the church a few years ago I 1 may have declared that I 1 was not a member of the church daring 1881 and 1882 I 1 was re bap sized with a view of going through the temple when I 1 went through alie temple I 1 never had any idea that the oath would be held valid I 1 did not go through the temple and take an additional obligation with the idea of defying the laws park never disclosed to me what his purpose was at the time of his visit here did not know that parkinson came here with the intention of holding a political meeting ee cross examination my object in withdrawing from the church was to procure my rights as an american citizen I 1 am not a religiously in mani severed my connection in good faith bishop stuart or parkinson did not influence me in the matter EH dails was called ase had lived in malad twenty three years had known the defendant about that length of time Kne whis reputation for truth and veracity to be good would not consider him to be a real orthodox member of the church cross examined never heard his reputation discussed can only aay i that whenever bis name has been mentioned it has been that for truth and voracity A few years ago he was considered an outsider altogether witness was not proprietor of the enterprise published in this city this closed the evidence A process was taken for fifteen minutes when the arguments commenced J N kimball and WEL smith spoke for the prosecution sir JS rawlins followed for tho defendant and the closing speech for the prosecution was delivered by district attorney standrod the charge to the jury was then given as follows by judge berry gentlemen of the jury after the discussion in this case the careful able and full summary of it that has been given by the counsel on either side you may not in fact desire to apar anything from the court but the law imposes upon me the duty of delivering to you the same thing to some extent in the nature of a charge I 1 am permitted by the statute to state to you the evidence if I 1 were disposed to recount the evidence end to declare the law to you also but I 1 must not charge you in respect to matters of fact I 1 say it would be proper if I 1 were so disposed to recount to the evidence but not to pass judgment upon it or to make any comments upon it but that is the province of the counsel and they have performed their duty most ably and carefully it is their province to recount to you the facts in the case and to comment upon the facts the court will omit that of tho facts m the case you are the exclusive judges tho defendant in a criminal action is presumed to be innocent till the con tray is proven and in case of a reasonable doubt as to whether he ia guilty or until his guilt is satisfactorily shown he is entitled to acquittal the facts constituting the alleged offense in this case are comparatively few and tho evidence bearing upon thase facts you will remember As to many of the facts there is no quey tion made by the evidence nor by the counsel in their argument it is not disputed that whatever was iu fact done by the defendant was done within the county of oncida in this territory so of the time of such acts that time was on saturday the day of october 1888 nor is it disputed that the oath was taken by the defendant in tho form as stated in tho indictment and before the of named in the indictment As to the authority of the officer administering the oath to administer the question of law alone and the court charges you that as a question of law the registrar had such authority As to whether the defendant up to the day 1883 was a mem ber of tho mormon church there is no question in the evidence nor in the argument asto whether he was a member I 1 say of the organization kaohn as the church of jesus of latter day saints there is no question does then that organization fall within th pro vison of the law making membership in it a disqualification fi of a voter that alao is a question of law and although that point is controvert ed in the argument of the counsel for defendant still this court regards that question as settled in this territory and charges you asa as a matter of law that such organization falls within the inhibition of the statute as an organization in which membership deprives the mamber of the right to vote the court does charge you I 1 say that such does disqualify a person from voting but admitting the membership of the defendant in such organization up to the day of october 1888 was that membership terminated on that day before defendant took the oath complained I 1 say admitting the membership of the defendant up to that date was membership that terminated by the defendant before he took the oath which is the subject matter of chisin that is they question for you to determine and in this it becomes your duty to lay bare the acts intentions and motives of the defendant to this question the evidence lu the case is mainly directed the court charges you that it is the right of any member of the organization to withdraw at pleasure but it also charges you that such withdrawal in order to ba effectual and to restore to the member the right under the vote must be absolute in good faith and with intent to terminate absolutely such membership on that point the defendant requests the court to charge you as follows if the jury find from the evidence that the defendant before taking the oath had withdrawn as a member of such mormon church by giving notice thereof in writing to the bishop or other proper officer of such church and causing his name to be at ricken from its roll of members or in any other way which the defendant believed or understood to be sufficient to sever his relations w a member of the said church and took the said oath believing and understanding at the time that he was not a member thereof then you should find the defendant not guilty I 1 so charge you again the defendant requests the court to charge you that before the jury can convict the defendant they must find from the evidence beyond reasonable doubt that defendant took an oath that he would declare or certify truly and having taken such an oath wilfully and contrary to uch oath plated as true matter that which he knew was false namely that he was not at the time of so stating member of any order organization or association which teaches advises counsels or encourages its members devotees or other persons to commit the crimes of bigamy or polygamy or any other crime defined oy law aaa duty arising from membership in such order organization or association or which practices bigamy or polygamy or plural or celestial marriage as a doctrinal rato of such organization in connection with other instructions in this charge J do so charge you the court also charges you that it is the right of any member to withdraw from that organization at pleasure but it also charges you tha tsuch withdrawal in order to be effectual effect aal and restore to the election laws of this territory the right to vote such withdrawal must be absolute in good faith and with intent to terminate absolutely such membership A mere attempt to get around the law by merely formally pretending withdrawal is not sufficient an act of withdrawal must be absolute and in good faith it must be with intent on the part of the member to leave the church organization it must not merely bo |