Show THE LEE TRIAL address adelynn s of jude judy J G sutherland of counsel for ghe the nene oene nse nae to the tho jury second DI district triet court 11 baver bater avem aver U ta T august aua Auf aust fust 1875 GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY TURY death under any Is ibi a solemn event we can never dever witness it without a shade of melancholy an choly the nearer we are arc brought to it the sadder are our reflections the duties we wo discharge at the bedside of the expiring and the rites rite we perform at the bunia buria lare al always way attended to with feelings subdued as by an awful and mysterious prem pren ence every harbinger of its com ing every wail wall which betokens tokens be that it has come e very every souvenir that perpetuates its memory cheek check the flow of cheerful thought dim the brightness of lifes lifers outlook and cast a funeral gloom over our pathway it seems to come especially near when those die to whom we are related by consanguineous ties and often nearer when friends spiritually kindred to us go to luau that bourne from irom whence two iio traveler returns death always wears wear arim srim agrim grim a visage those who have never dever seen it ex capt where disease or mec mcc accident ident has marked its victim when the lao lat la t hours of the dep arlei arlel have bee bet been betit it soothed by the ministrations of af faction fec tion have seen it in lis ita least foi roi bidding aped a peet ped but even then the smile of or providence seems for the time withdrawn 3 and the earth is d dreary rea ren r y and aud de desolate but when life has been sacrificed to the wrath or avarice of man and the brief span of existence bas has been curtailed by violence the heart grows hick mick with horror at the appalling spectacle it la Is no holiday hollday aTair affair to investigate ty by what diabolical human agency aveo even one otie man inan has come to an all untimely end especially when the po sibl issue of or such buch inquiry inquiry may be to rec require juire luire another d death a h by way of expiation this ease caye involves still more the detail sr of a wholesale blaugh slaughter terr you have been selected to hear and to decide whether john D lee is such uch a moral monster as to embrue C mis nis hands in the blood dif f men women and ch children ildrem in a cold blooded massa massacre ere I 1 know you cannot approach this subject except with rf elligs of awe with trembling and feat reat for you and I 1 and all of us are treading upon sacred ground wo we are stirring the ashes of the dead we are searching for the blood unworthily spilled tat tal tiled spilled by liy murderous i hands t that we in my lay illy it upon tile tiie ruilt guilt lbs iti touch wh witsie e you put it i will bla ula blaag ulato tg wither alther and dc detroy troy HB he Who touch witch in thi i holy onnic office wiil will be marked anark eil ehl for a belous death in this solemn and responsible function I 1 feel fefel assured you will proceed the ca cation caution U tion and diffidence wll wil wilch ch ever even characterize earnest and candid ano dpn n that you will nonn fonn mi no hasty Judg judgment ment went tuat that you will not buffery suffer your our decision to be influenced by any fanatical party zeal in short that you will be governed by BO no capricious moods by no sentiments that are alien to your high duty and I 1 say gentlemen gent lymen that any mistake you commit by proceeding too hastily dpn pie prejudice judice with voluntary blindness of mind to the indications afforded by the evidence any mistake I 1 say thus arising from aught but that infirmity of judgment which sometimes prevents tm the he best beat men from coming to just conclusions when they are garnest arnest ly endeavoring to do ho will expose you to the same saine moral condemnation dem nation as though you had taken life like an nai aai asin instead of through criminal negligence or perversity by a false verdict the patient attention you have elven ulven to tit the proceedings during dying tle introduction of the eviden evidene e I 1 ao ept as 88 an 2113 ehrne earne earnest 41 of sotir de dewire desire ire lre to fearn leant the bets with judicial luter inter erl t and fairbie w s a a t sign that 3 ou on will bring to the consideration of that evidence a robust and fe arles aries J edgna en t to proceed with the desired thoroughness ough ness and caution you are noi not permitted to go lut out jut and make inquiries you have been aborn and placed in lit confinement undercharge under charge of court you have been so sn sequestered tha that you could learn nothing noth ingon on the teof interest or curiosity you have been obliged to limit your inquiries to such as have been brought before you on to so much of the bloody transaction as has been ruba submitted bitted to you the government has made a distinct charge agalia against st the pris oner otier at the bar and it assumes to give you the necessary information the genius of crime is so secretive that often the government is obliged to submit cases casts to juries upon meagre and fragmentary testimony then jurors juron are prompted by a sense of we tiie situation to give the fullest consideration to facts so brought to light they can infer nothing against the good faith of the prosecution from the paucity of the evidence if every clue to new and additional light has been followed if every source of informs tion has been explored and every agency utilized to lift the vell veil under aich crime is wont to hide itself it self if under such c eau cau be been seen towa to traute conviction ai ao cording to the tiie strict and rules that govern in lit re respect to the measure and plenitude of proof the jury the verdict of guilty otherwise they acquit lest jest the innocent suffer instead of the guilty the crime now under investigation a was one of unprecedented wickedness it will krit grit gratify tiry the tiie i etise of retributive ju tice tire which every man not au an enemy of his kind feels to t di discover cover the tile perpetrators arid mund hang them they should not be permitted to live that crime so chocks us was committed with such circumstances of atrocity that no 1 1 I eem i adequate but pa in 1 proportion to the turpitude of n the clime elline charged and the severity of the punishment should be our diligence and cir in tit looking for and condemning the fiend that planned and enacted that scene of horror who have since rince cursed the earth with heir baneful presence pie mih sence for the period of eighteen years have you been furni ahei with adequate evidence to beatify 1 you that chat you have been made acquainted daltit with the bloody tran action do you au think it has bas been go so circumstantially described and detailed to you on that no other person exists ahot be brought before you and could tell you more of it han has it been ai s described that you neel feel as ared if others do exist who can testify on the subject that what they would say would add no new fact to what you have already learna learn A fJ unless you have been permitted d to know by evi evl evidence dunce dence all that can bo be learned front allue seg ses qa you ean caa not feel that auran cei cel of the correctus of your jour judgment that amounts to a moral ertain ty of the defendants gudt you yop enn cn not have that arsura assurance nce which C is not t beset with that misgiving which cording according to jawne lawne jaw quIts balled called a reasonable dou be the testimony submitted to you discloses that there were at least twenty four eyewitnesses eye witnesses of the tragedy P john M 1 higbee carl shirts charles hopkins vm wm 0 stewart john D lee joel white rebert robert wiley ira alien allen samuel mci Mcl Aurdy thos cartwright wm win bateman clark ezra Cuni Samuel pollock 3 wm win young harrison pierce jas pierce samuel knight richad bichard richard harrison john man MaD mangram gram slade swen jacobs and james williamson six are dead four of the ot others hers are mentioned as defendants in this indictment leaving fourteen that might testify dame and haight who are indicted were not at the scene of the massacre jukes adair and wilden who abo ure tire also aiso also alto indicted have not been mentioned in the transaction of these fourteen who are eligible to testify only P joel white saml sami pollock roii ock william young and james pierce llave been put on the witness stand ten othera others could have been called and have not been called they are all within the jurisdiction of this court now a remark as to the exam examination of those who were called to the stand smith and white were put under oath by the prosecution an and directed to state all they heard said and baw saw before going to the meadows all they heard said and mw saw at that place on the day of the slaughter and on all of the preceding days they were there the prosecution se giso called pollock young and pierce the directions to them were f tell all you saw baw during the same period but dont repeat a word you may have heard anybody any body say tho thoe those e witnesses testified accordingly the prosecution did not permit these latter witnesses on erosa crosa examination nor when called as witnesses for the defense to transcend those inexorable limits smith and white have testified on questions put by the prosecution to conversations to rumors to acts which they said said baid had occurred at cedar city and at other places before the slaughter and prior to going to the meadows they likewise testified to conversations rumor and acts at the mea dows nor were they confined to stating conversations between those who aro are indicted or between tie lie tween those persons lie raona that acted in concert or that seemed to be bound together by some combination with each other or with lee all conversations no matter between whom or where occurring all rumors no matter how or impersonal all acts no matter by bv whom done or how irrelevant were testified to by them the tho defence interposed ob objections but they were unavailing 1 ug to exclude anything the transaction really consisted of what all the actors at the meadows said and did while together by way of preparation before going of all they said and did OH their way thither and all they said and did after they arrived after some evidence of combination for going there the acts and declarations of individuals belonging to the party in the absence of the others within the same scope of time and place relating to the common purpose and in the execution of it would also be included in the technical rca geathe would form part martof of thim thin transaction which is the subject of this inquiry smith white ranged over this field without the least check no combination ho however never vever was shown beyond this thia that the persons whose names have been mentioned were called to go to the meadows to save the emigrants that had survived the protracted attacks of the indians and to bury the dead on this ostensibly humane errand men went simultaneously from cedar city harmony and washington they carried implements suitable forin for In the dead they also aiso carried firearms these were always in demand the th a farmer seldom went even to his fields without his trusty guu smith and white are the only witnesses who have given full testimony the prosecution it is true called pollock young and pierce but they were only per matte to describe jho fhe ho transaction as a pantomime nime they were not permitted to state what was said in connection with any act which t hey they mentioned they were at the M meadows they saw all that any b body ody saw and heard much said that hat t would explain those acts but they were compelled to testify as though they had been deaf nud aud saw the transaction with the sense of hearing abolished gentlemen of the jury the charge against the defendants named in this indictment is that they by agreement and concert of action killed and murdered the emigrants As before remarked they did not all go from one place they did not occupy one ono camp at the meadows they were not continuously together they were there two or three days before the massacre during that interval the emigrants were the indians fired upon them on the fatal day no indians were to be seen they had in fact concealed themselves in the saga sage brush they were in ambush from which they sallied out to the final assault on that day the emigrants emi gants came into communication with the mormons cormons Mor mons under a flag of truce surrendered their arms abandoned their property and placed themselves under mormon protection to be conducted back to cedar city the children and wounded had been placed in wagons provided by the mor mons these wagons had started towards Ced arunder the lead of john D lee next marched out the women lastly the men this procession marched for nearly three quarters of a mile the mormons cormons traveling abreast or near lyso of the men belonging to the emigrant party when the massacre commenced lee leo had gone with the wagons over a rise of ground and was out of sight of the men that was his final departure from the field he conducted the children in safety away two important and vital questions must be determined first did the mormons cormons take part in the massacre if so was it previously agreed on when lee was present if there was no agreement or concert of action each man of course was only responsible for his own acts act was there anything said done or agreed upon uron which should affect leu leo with notice when he headed the retreating deml emigrants grants that such sueh a butchery was to be executed when they came opposite to that masked battery of indians that attack was either mado made by the indians alone jor jon or by indians and individual mormons cormons Morn ions lons that were more savage than Indian indians iq or it was initiated by mormons cormons Mor mons organized and using the indians as allies it was a sudden attack unlooked unlocked for alike by mormons cormons and deml emigrants and originated in the natural ferocity and treachery of the indians or id it was by mormons cormons as individuals or as a party acting upon a like impulse of treachery and ferocity you yon must decide in your own minds how it transpired you can not convict lee unless you find from the evidence that there was such plan plans and that he was a party to the damnable compact As lee did not participate in the slaughter and was not present or in view of it the hypothesis that he and the others arranged prearranged pre the destruction can not be adopted unless there is evidence of it there must be such as a state late of facts proved beyond a reasonable doubt asare asaro as are not only consistent with but such facts as prove that supposition the facts proved proved must be inconsistent with any ather supposition that can reasonably be propounded in other words the conspiracy must be proved and it can only be established indirectly by proof of such facts as exclude all probability that he had no notice that such an attack was contemplated by those who made it whoever they were gentlemen of the jury aro are you prepared ared to decide that question you xou you are informed that Jour fourteen courteen men were there who are now within reach and could give you information do you feel safe in n deciding before bedore kou iou you you have heard what they have to say you cannot infer beforehand that any of these witnesses are guilty such suell au ind crenco ereneo would involve a decision of the very question on which their testimony is necessary all the eyewitnesses who have been produced have testified A witness is always privileged to decline to testify when to do so would in hia hla own opinion have a tendency to support any criminal charge that might bo be brought against him but so far none of these witnesses have asserted any such privilege |