OCR Text |
Show fE TIL OBOEBED Judge W. M. McCarty Gives Vigorous Opinion in Statutory Stat-utory Conviction. Jn tiie case of Frank Broun of Gar-. Gar-. lielil. convicted in the Third district court of n statutory nfftnpe toward a voting girl, ;i new trial was ordered yesterday yes-terday by the supreme court. Three .separate opinions were vriu-?n hy the justices. In a vigorous opinion. Justice W. M. .UcCurty went on record to llic effect that he felt the judicial system of the :-tate would be smirched if tiie judgment Lgainst Brown were allowed to stand. Justice D. X. Htraup heil in his opinion opin-ion tiiat, while the evidence may be suf-heient suf-heient to support the verdict that was qiven against Brown, errors prejudicial to tiie substantial rights of the defendant were committed by the trial court in the refusal of certain of the defendant's requests re-quests as to instruction of the jury. Jus-It Jus-It ice J. E. Prick held thai the evidence before the jury was suflieienl to support t lie verdict and thai no errors prejudicial ; to any substantial right of the defendant were committed during the trial. Justice McCarty held that the evidence was wholly insufficient to sustain the verdict in the case. He excoriated the i methods of the juvenile court officers in the case and concurred with the chief justice In his conclusions on questions Of law. Following is an excerpt from the opinion opin-ion written by Justice McCarty: Should the judgment In the case at bar be approved, then, t submit, the law governing Ibis class of cases is a menace to the good name and liberty lib-erty of every man, however honest and virtuous be may be, who lias a family and tukes into his household and treats as a member thereof a homeless and motherless girl who is in any degree inclined to be wayward. way-ward. A few convictions on evidence such as the record here discloses would have a tendency to, if they did not absolutely, close every respectable respect-able home In the state of Utah against these unfortunate girls, because, be-cause, under the rule thus declared, if a man who had taken a motherless mother-less and somewhat wayward girl into his home should incur the displeasure of his ward or arouse the unfounded suspicion of some over-zealous juvenile juve-nile court officer, he Is in danger of being accused of a heinous crime and convicted thereof" on the unsupported and uncorroborated evidence of a self -impeached, discredited and Irresponsible Irre-sponsible wayward girl, regardless of how improbable and unbelievable her testimony may be. And that, too, notwithstanding he may be fortunate enough to show hy evidence of credible cred-ible witnesses, as In the case at bar, that be had no opportunity to commit, com-mit, and did not commit, the criminal act of which be is accused. In conclusion 1 remark that to permit, per-mit, the judgment in this case to stand would be a reflection upon and an impeachment of our Judicial system. |