Show THE JURY HU3IBCG THE HERALDS oftrepeated proposition proposi-tion that the jury system once the terror ter-ror of the guilty and the protector of the innocent has degenerated uhtil it is a humbug and fraud is being almost daily demonstrated in the Utah courts J There may have been and doubtless was a time when thejury was a grand institution insti-tution but that time long since passed an < today a jury trial is little better than a farce in the sense that justice is to be reached at the hands of the twelve men There have been trials and trials jury lately and inmost in-most of the instances the onlooker who knewnothing of the merits of the case could tell befpre a line of testimony had been taken justwhat the verdict would provided he was acquainted with the position that the jurymen assumed on the local religious question and wastold to which party the defendant defend-ant belonged Had any of the trials for unlawful cohabitation taken place in another State where there was no Mormon question the defendants were not Mormons and the jurymen were not Gentiles as the term is understood here we doubt if a conviction could have been lhad because the testimony has not warranted the finding of the accused guilty Here the jurors wer I Gentiles and it is considered an act of loyalty for Gentiles to convict Mormons and disloyalty to acquit When a Gentile juryman hangs out against a conviction he runs the risk of being denounced by the antiMormon press as a traitor or as being corrupt There are men here now smarting I from recentabuse of that character The trial of Policeman Thomas which closed on Thursday furnished fur-nished a striking illustration of what a jury trial means Thomas is a Mormon police officer and I was charged with having beaten the I negro who murdered City Marshal Burt Whether or not he had beaten the black brute in no other I country would van indictment have been found the circumstances circum-stances being everywhere else held as abundant justification for the exhibition of passion that the striking of the I negro implied It may be here stated that the officer denied that he struck the murderer except to slap him with I the open hand and his story was not I disproven by any competent or trustworthy trust-worthy testimony But the officer was a Mormon and the Grand Jury being nonMormons he was indicted and placed on trial The trial developed that Thomas did all that a cautious officer could have done for the protection of his prisoner not the I least cause for censure much less guilt being shown yet the jury was hours in agreeing upon a verdict It was a mixed jury and it is understood that two or I three nonMormons held out for a verdict ver-dict oi guilty The antiMormon newspapers news-papers are pursuing the old and familiar I I course of charging that it was a lorI I lor-I mon jury and therefore conviction was j out of the question the inference being j that had the twelve men been Gentiles the verdict would have been guilty as charged in the indictment It is a deplorable condition of affairs that such things can be and are talked about openly as matters of fact which everybody understands under-stands The proaecuhhg olfficer always a Gentile when a Mormon is to be tried labors diligently to exclude Mormons from the panel and the Mormon on trial exerts himself to obtain a jury of his fellow religionist Less attention isI I given to the facts that will be brought out on the trial than to the omposition of the jury a straight jury of either class meaning conviction or acquittal and a mixed jury implying a disagreement disagree-ment let the evidence be what it may It will be a long step in advance when America abolishes its jury system which is fair and just only in theory and the I suggestion of what it should be With courts removed from the field of partisanship par-tisanship the judges term of office being dependent upon his learning and integrity and not upon his party politics poli-tics or the favoritism of a politician justice would oftener be done if there j were no juries I |