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Show Some residents guilty of 'vigilante ' justice By 4(fcJ BRUCE "The Oxbow Incident," a chilling novel by Walter van Tilburn Clark, tells of a vigilante group of the Old West tracking down and lynching three men they supposed guilty of murder. Upon returning to town, the mob found that they had hung three innocent men. The novel did and does stand as a reminder that "justice" cannot be justice in the hands of an uninformed citizenry. However, the same type of activity, on a lesser scale has been, taking place in Cedar City. Last week the Iron County Record reported that John Timothy Murray had been arrested for rustling. Almost immediately, John Henry Murray, part-owner of CBM and an entirely different person, began receiving threats and obscene phone calls. I have a hard time imagining that those harassing Mr. Murray felt they were serving justice. Indeed, as in "The munity. Taking this even further, perhaps even John Timothy Murray is innocent. At this point he has only been arrested, not found guilty. Unfortunately this is the problem with anyone assuming too much or taking justice into their own hands. I would hope that those who are responsible for this behavior and these attacks on Mr. .Murray's character would realize that not only are they circumventing reason and. justice, but that they are simply wrong. ( In publishing the very short story on the arrest of John Timothy Murray, the Record felt, and still does, that it was only doing it's duty as a local newspaper, informing the public. However, in the future, I hope that those who we are offering this information in-formation to would be a bit more careful in interpreting it, and a lot more careful in taking action concerning it. The story said simply that John Timothy Murray had been arrested. It said nothing of conviction, nor even of evidence in the case. The assumption that any individual is guilty at this time is simply that, an assumption. Second, the assumption that the John Timothy Murray who was arrested is the same John Henry Murray who I know as a businessman in Cedar City is completely erroneous, adding only fault upon fault, casting doubt and suspicion on someone deserving of better. '' The, role of the press, the. role of the ' law enforcement officials and the role of the courts are important in our society. All are well defined and all act in the public service for the public good. Yet, they can be no better than the public they serve. I hope that the unfortunate un-fortunate events of the past week can be rectified by those involved and that in the future people will make sure they have the facts and the authority necessary to act. Oxbow Incident," they were wrong, dead wrong. The confusion of two almost identical names had led them far astray. Our law enforcement, justice and punishment systems are among the most complex in the world, designed to protect the innocent. Unfortunately, they cannot always protect the innocent from their own peers, who, in this case, have turned violently on one who had nothing to do with the crime. Certainly, John Henry Murray had nothing to do with the alleged crime. He is an honest businessman of the com- |