Show IS IT W persecution his honor BLACKBURN said in his charge to tho grand jury the other day that it is a wicked falsehood that the prosecution and punishment of offenses referring to cases under tho law is the persecution of any class or organization tho judge has not been long enough in this territory to learn all that has happened in connection with such cases for bis information we will direct his attention to to the calendar of the court he presides over and say that there he will find cases in which the defendants and members of their families have been held under bonds for several years and yet not one scintilla of evidence has over been brought for ward to justify their arrest indictment or holding A more flagrant violation of the of Arfe rican citizens under the constitution and laws of our country was never perpetrated anywhere except in utah than that of arresting and persecuting these defendants who have been so persecuted year after year and when each successive term of the district court has como around and those same defendant victims of prosecution or moro properly pro persecution have besought tho judge on tho bench to grant them their trials a malicious vengeful and apito ful attorney representing the free and enlightened government of tha united states in this isolated section has taken upon himself the liberty of resisting any disposition on the part of the court to grant the defendants fend ants their constitutional rights and demanding another and another continuance let judge BLACKBURN ask DAVID the acting attorney for the government in this division of the first judicial district why ho has held these men year after year and the answer his honor will get will bo and that viciously that they have beon all the time concealing some witness tho government needs and must have in order for him to make out his cases and yet if his honor asked for proof of this kind of statement DAVI DEVANS could not say any more than that he believed such to bo the case from what somebody told him Is it not persecution to continue to hold the men and their families in bondage on such flimsy pretexts if some reputable citizen were accused by a disreputable indi vidual such was the character of the men who employed to corn plain of supposed violators of the edmunds law of stealing a calf could or would DAVE EVANS dare to ask the court to hold that defendant more than one term on tho bare complaint of that disreputable individual we think not but we know that if the reputable citizen happened to be a non mormon DAVE would be afraid for his life that he would bo prosecuted for malicious prosecute prose cuti or rather persecution it ia r ae necessarily a wicked se hood judge khejl a mormon i claims that it is persecution of aay class or organization to encompass his arrest force through an indictment hold him under heay bonds year after year and deny him the right of a trial or even the ordinary treatment accorded the vilest of criminals we can prove to you judge that thero is one case at least on the calendar of the court you preside over wherein a defendant had been arrested taken before a united states commissioner a pronounced anti mormon of tho most violent type discharged by him because tho evidence was totally insufficient to hold tho defendant and yet before the case was disposed of by hat same commissioner the defendant was indicted by a partisan grand jury and with his legal wife forced to give bonds we can also prove budge that tho indictment was found while the case was being heard in tho corn missioners ners court tho same attorney prosecuting before the grand jury that prosecuted before the commissioner in fact that ho ran up to the grand jury room from the commissioners ners court he found that tho latter could not by any shadow of anes cuso hold the defendant am secured an indictment within ton long befaro lioner who not understanding the reason of the district attorneys sudden disappearance decided that tho defendant was rightfully entitled to his discharge thia is anly one of many similar cases of persecution improperly designated prosecution that the calendars of the courts from the in inauguration of the anti mormon crusade until recently have been crowded with cages inspired by religious hate no one familiar with the history of events in this territory can deny it is persecution when a man because he is a mormon is prosecuted and convicted on less evidence than it takes to convict a non mormon it is persecution when the rules of law and justice are reversed and mor mons are compelled to go into court and prove their own innocence of the charges manufactured for their pro B caution cc ution while non cormons mormons actually guilty of crim I 1 earo althey and all other classes of citizens should be under like circumstances deemed innocent until are given fair and impartial trials persecution of the certain class or organization referred to by judge blackburn is a well established fact and there is abundant evidence on the records of the first district cogut alone to warrant that class or organization iza tion in believing that their prose cution has been characterized too frequently by persecution |