Show i UTAH AFFAIRS no 4 nud auries juries vanh jury law I satt bayt llie nare CITY maydah 1874 editor deseret mews mems 1 1 A well did senator thurman Thur nian remark riwe e cann cannot ot conceal it from ourselves sel sei v e g we w a know it to be so that in umi utah territory there have been judges judko who have been rather remarkable for tor a il spirit of persecution than for a spirit of enlightened and gnipa administration of the law cong globe 3rd ard sess cong p 1802 1 george alfred townsend an eye and ear witness of the hawkins trial triai tr lafor fol foi adultery writing to the cincinnati commercial ocl och 1871 thus summarises summarizes arises tile the argument of defendants counsel in that case tite tile the command thou Eili alt ait not commit adultery was delivered to a polygamous people and engraved u p q ii st tb the husband of three wives the too same public opinion and religious inculcation inculpation which imich enacted act ed th the e stat statute fite aga agn against fust nAp japhery hery ni married a rile dih the prisoner t to his wives and hong hono honored led red thee the children lill dren aren of them equally the rulings of the courts in utah both probate and di district for twenty years yearb had bad been in accordance cor eor lance dance w with th this thiis theory of marriage au an I now seven boven years after committing the act charged with his wire wife a rusty rust y law aw is drawn from its antique sheath Y and made retroactive upon this man the polygamists on oil trial in the person of the prisoner goner had llad left civilized places and entered the desert followed hy isy the women to attest their belief in this dispels dispensation a and obey it out of themay the way of the people J bidge mckean delivered a harangue to the jury answering every point made madd by the tho defense it was a speech of three quarters of an hour and amounted to an exhortation to convict As to the ther intent of the territorial legislature thirty five out of thirty nine or of the members practised practiced plural marriage who enacted the statute against adultery he said that was wag nio tio noni more ore oro to be conjectured than that magna mayna gharld could euld be interpreted away because king john its grantor granter was wa a tyrant a statute against ft gambling might be similarly dp disproved roved because the ennet enact actors ors ois were proven to play at chance it is to provide this man with such power as shall insure conviction and hide the infamy under the name of trial by jury that the govern Gavern government ment of this mighty re be publicist pub licis liels asked so to debase itself blackstone say says s of triai trial by j jury ury loit it is the glory of tho the english law it la Is the most fransee n dent privilege ege which any ny subject can enjoy or wish for that he cannot pa n nat be affected either in 16 his property his liberty or his person but by the unanimous consent of 0 twelve of hl his neighbors and equals a provision which haa has under providence secured the just liberties of this nation for a long succession of ages hon HOD NY r 11 II lid ild hooper oper open add addressing the house of representative march 23 1870 against the passage of the cullom bill bill a similar measure gald said athe the triai trial by jury by this bill is worse than abolished for its forn form aa a sickening farce remains while its spirit is utterly gone A packed jury is worse than no i jury r y at all the essence of a irias r I 1 a b by y jury consists in the fact that the accused is tried by a jury drawn by lot from among his neighbors A jury which will be a fair epitome of the dietr district where the offense offence is charged and thus such a tribunal as will agree to lo no verdict except such as substantially the whole community would agree to if present and taking part in the the trial that no person perso 14 shall be punished who when brought to the barof bar of public opinion ln in the community where the alleged offense offence Is ia committed is not adjudged to have been guilty of a crime what judge mckean governor woods and baskin fc co ask for is precisely the reverse of all this senator benator trumbull says says T ull uit S The object of ota ofa ax jury Is ia entirely sr isk i I 1 1 i itsuo aul tur defeated and a jury trial goes for nothing if tho judge selects the jury and the clerk and marshal marshak are fire really subordinate officers of the tile court and are very apt to be influenced encel by the judge himself the object of a jury j u aryls ia to be a check upon the judge 1 I think it is 13 objectionable tio to havu havn the onni omm meers leers cers of the court select tile the jury P 1785 5 senator sher shei man says the judge ought not to have anything to do with the selection of a jury it seems to me some local authority whose power emanates from the people and does doeg not emanate from the thi U 8 government ought hught to be selected to join these commissioners there I 1 is the fou foundation of all trials and abid of all justice P 1786 senator thurman in an able argument says to prevent perversion of the tile law in my judgment the safeguards are not sufficient I 1 thought r so 0 o in committee I 1 think so PO still the more reflection I 1 have given to the bulj buld subject act the more I 1 am satisfied of it I 1 will not say what kind of courts we have in utah for I 1 am a little chary about make maki making ing accusations against men for which I 1 have no plain I 1 a in and obvious foundation but I 1 will say that they are courts in which I 1 have no do confidence ornery or tery very little P 1782 he therefore moved an abend amendment providing that three jury CO commissioners be c chosen ho gen by the territorial legislature to act I 1 in conjunction with the judge marshal and clerk the last three to make maket up tilo the list until the legislature shall meet senator moved to substitute tap twp 11 instead of erthree ay commiss commissioners in foner 4 and the amendment men tas as amended was agreed to P 1747 senator stewart moved that until the legislature meets meet the tile tw two 0 commissioners be L selected elected by the tile district judge from the tile probate jud judges g e 4 that amendment bagalso was also aiso agreed eed to P 1797 and still another by senator casserly that the 00 male citizens from whom the jurors juror are to be constituted shall be cc qualified electors within the provisions of e this acl ael senator trumbull would have gone further lie would have havo excluded the judge and substituted the governor to which proposition senator sherman objected he said tt see the objection to the governor being consulted he is the executive officer of the territory called upon to execute the laws and he be is a man who necessarily takes bides sides on political questions he maybe a man ot strong partisan feelings and from the nature of his office I 1 think lie ought not to be called to administer anything in connection with the courts P R 1780 1785 to which senator trumbull replied P lied if there is objection to the uld governor having this power take the surveyor general generals or 01 any person other than the judge ir if there could be any fairness at all in taking purely local matters out of the hands of local legislation there would be some fairness in those amendments but they have all been carefully omitted in the bills now before congress since the virtual der demise of the mckee mekee bill however merritt co have received fresh instructions the Judge Clerk and marshal packing process is an ugly pill coat it with sugar make it look less ugly and congress will swallow it hence the amended poland bill but it has the same object in in i view under a fairer face and what cannot be reached openly must be reached by circumvention had honest juries been wanted he could have had bad them in sept 18 istl irti 11 and ever since under the territorial rit orial jury law which chief chie justice chase said mckeand Mc INIc Keans court wholly aud nud purposely disregarded a jaw law which the national supreme court declared in ln dec 1871 was wils obligatory upon the district courts of the 11 hon bon thos fitch in I 1 his i Is address to the house judiciary committee feb 10 1843 said of this thi law the mode of obtaining gand grand g and and petit jurors in utah is the saihe salbe same as in many parts of the country the prunty court I 1 I 1 I 1 of each co county anty at its first session in ia each year sear fc selects elects at least fifty names from the tile assessment roba persons eligible as jurors T these h e d names are written on slips 0 paper and deposited in a box the bixl shaken up and the jury panel drawn promiscuously A tt inasmuch as nine tents tenths 0 of tho the persons eligible to jury duty are cormons mormons Mor mons it is difficult to Wc comprehend how this can be remedied without either converting or dis dla franchising the mormons cormons Mor Ifor mons it Js is scarcely within the scope of congressional gress lonal ional power to accomplish the first and it certainly does not seem right to perpetrate the second I 1 venture the assertion that no jury list has ever been made out in utah in which the non nou mormon element has not been accorded a larger representation than its numbers entitled it to expect it has not been asserted except by juden do that this 11 mormon lormon control has ever been imp improperly exercised the jury law was made in jany 1859 1839 at that time the counties counti es had comparatively a sparse population some of them could hardly furnish fifty eligible jurors hence the limited number in larger counties the practice has been to increase the list in proportion to the population and as there are nine counties in judge mc keans heans district the least number must be while it may be and is in practice much greater last february the utah le legislature islat sought to amend the jury ur law b by y requiring each C county C court urt each c 4 year to take fro from the assessment roll the names of all persons known or believed to be eligible serve servo as jurors write each pame in n full on a separate slip lip of paper or ticket and fold the same so that the name thereon cannot be seen and place all of said papers or tickets in a box prepared for that purpose thoroughly mix said tickets and not select 1 but draw F from haq sald said box at least one hundred names to serve as jurors and make a list or of the names so drawn which list shall be filed with the clerk of the county court who shall keep in ills his mee office a box in which he 8 chalme halide posit the names on the list having previously written each name on a separate ticket and so folded said ticket that tile tiie name thereon does doea not appear provided if in any county there are less than one hundred sired alred persons eligible to serve as jurors thew tha names of al persons eligible to jury service shail shall bo be drawn by the tho cou county n ty court the te amendments passed both houses but were vetoed by G governor ov woods if fair play were wanted what could ba bis fairer VERITAS |