| Show CHARCIE TO tree THE jurg K I 1 1 klc 3 chio Chic Justice while in the case of the U S vs george bc rcy Ecy reynolds indicted for bigamy dc livered delivered in in the district court couri salt sall luke lake city dac dec 10 1875 40 gentlemen ff the buryi tury while our consideration of this case will properly ba be confined to the tile case itself lo 10 the evidence which yu yeti have heard from the witnesses the argument of counsel and the law given you by the court yet it cannot be concealed that in it its dimensions it swells far beyond the individual case and demands of f you gentlemen as members of this community and citizens of this territory the most deliberate intelligent tell igent and profound 1 investigation 0 and consideration the defendant is indicted for bi bigamy g bigamy is an of mience fience known to ta our law and consists in a second marriage bya by a man or woman having a difo or husband living and not divorced at the time of the second marriage if a it mall man with a wife wire livin gand marries a second time ho he is guilty of bigamy the fira first thing then to which the court will direct your attention dionis is the evidence in the case as it conduces to establish the tiie charge or as it tends to repel it the first fact for your coash consideration dera jera is whether the defendant was married wh whether ether other there was a first marriage did lie marry according to the tho forms and ceremonies tided in this territory and in the ity city of salt aalt lake ijane the lady mary tu aun ann tuddenham dehm I 1 in 1861 the proof is before you with regard to the tile manner mauner of marrying in this territory and the court charges you that under the ceremonial which has been adopted here by an agreement in the presence of dof other persons a man and woman may enter into the relation of husband and wipe wife and unit living together after that time as ai husban dand wife constitutes in law a legal marriage then the tile next question is was there a second manin mania maneage manine ma niage c e the evidence evic upon this point was first the testimony of mr wells welli i the mayor of salt iao inoko lao city yo you xou d vill remember m what he said with regard to his performing a ceremony emony emoDy of marriage h eaid said it cashis as his best recollection mat vat that he performed a ceremony of marriage between the defendant and the lady amelia jane jaue schofield in august 1874 then gentlemen yoa vow look atthe at the testimony ony oay which was allowed by the court to go before you of what was testified to on a former trial by amelia jaue june schofield or amelia jane reynolds jt was suggested by boumel that it was for you to consider whether the defendant in this case had been instrumental in or had connived atthe non appear ance of this bitne witness s at kt this time to testify on this trial that was a question gentlemen which was submitted to the court upon the question as to whether the testimony of this witness at the former trial was legal and competent test mony mody in this case it is a matter with which you have nothing to do the court has hns passed upon it an and if the court has erred it can be corrected by another tribunal what amelia jane schofield swore to at the former trial between the same parties relating to the same au subject abject matter was allowed to go before you as testimony in this case caie and isyou if you believe from the testimony of the witnesses that she swore on that trial as has beep stated before you then it should have the same saule weight aa as evidence as if she had herself b been n upon the stand to day been examined and stated those facts there thero is one other men who spoke with reference to this fact of a feconda marriage I 1 did not understand his name but you w will ill lil remember it ile he stated that he was wits acquainted w with ith the defendant and you will remember what ho he said about the defendants defendant having one or more wives and what he be said to you with reference to it thi this ge gentlemen n ia is as much of an ull ul lusOn allusion to the testimony as the court under the law feels it is called upon and justified in giving you you a iro ire ro called upon as jurors to determine whether the defendant is guilty as charged or not has he married twice contrary to law I 1 will state to you what the law is upon the tho subject more fully hereafter H hab has he been married twice then within this territory if the evi ovi evidence benco shows to you that ho he ha has then irrespective of an ail opinions of arc uru buld boud by your oaths so to declare unless unies under the further chargo charge which the 06 court shall give couyou shall think that the defendant should he be elcus ed or that lie he is not guilty but if these facts are established then the defendant is guilty as charged they must bo be established beyond a reasonable doubt but that reasonable ba doubt must find its source and be founded in the testimony in the case to that alone call can you look in passing upon the guilt or innocence of the defendant I 1 have said your individual opinions have nothing to do wull it your individual opinions as to whether the act committed is a crime have nothing to do with it they do not enter into the oath which you took that oath was that you would a just verdict render according to the law and the evidence it means that you will take all the evidence and give to it I 1 its ita ts just t I 1 rational annd and legitimate weight NS in forming conclusions as to tho the facts fact aud that eliat you tako take the law as tile the court gives it to you that ls is is 13 the obligation by toy which you are aru bound but gentlemen it isaid is sald said that to the crime crimo it I 1 is necessary that there should have been a criminal intent and it is urged up oil on you with much plausibility and much foree force that under tinder the proof in this case you cannot find the defendant to have been guilty of th the criminal intent which the law makes a constituent an essential constituent of the crime ItIs it is said sald that the defendant acted under the he inspiration ofa of a religious belief and tit that in this country by the fundamental law of the land every man has a right in matters of religion to thin think k for himself tills this gentlemen is true and I 1 may add that it is the glory of our country it is the crowning excellence of our political institutions that in matters of opinion every man has a right to think for himself that so far as religion is concerned he may believe bellev e as his judgment dictates and his conscience approves and it ia is of the very essence of american liberty I 1 that this right should bo accorded in effect and in spirit by all and to all the reverse of it persecution for Win uin opinion lons ions sake is the essence of tyranny not nol NL ot only ia Is it so in an abstract and theoretical view but it ha been illustrated in the bl 1 odiest pages of the history of the human race but gentlemen there must be some effin limit it to this high constitutional privilege and you will observe that the court has told you that in matters of opinion and especially in matters of religious belief all men are free but parallel with and anti dominating over this is the obligation which every member of society ores oyes owes to that society that is obedience to the law this great principle to which I 1 have alluded must have its limits in practice while so far as opinion Is concerned it ia is free free as the air which we breathe free as RS the thoughts 0 which spring from the very organization of our being and which is not only based in the foundations of our political system but has received the sanction of the greatest names that adorn A merican history of which it is said by the great apostle of american liberty that we should be tolerant of error so long as truth is left free to combat it yet all of this is with a limit and with the qualification that in their no matter what their opinions may be they must conform to and obey the law of the land now kow if in tills this case the defendant was under the influence of a rellous belief which amounted as he conceived to inspiration which he be believed as thoroughly as is possible within the limit of the human mind yet if lie he violated the law does that belief ellef elief mitigate in ill any sanae sense the crime which ho he has com cited does doss the extent of that belief reaching a large portion of the community suggest to juror jurors s in any modifying or mitigating degree the propriety of their doing their duty manfully and independently in cases which come under the influence of tills this inspiration or belief allusion has been baade made by counsel sel sei to the errors of which the human mind has hai been the victim the court will suggest to you in 11 1 the same lin Jin line esome some such errors well known AS illustrate the principle the hindmo mother when ahe she casts her now born infant into the ganges believes that sho eho is discharging corgi og a holy and sacred duty she sho sacrifices that fin fir finst first stand and aud highest 0 o 0 o or which huro hurn humanity atily alliy is capable for the tiie good of her child and by way of assurance to herself of the blessing of heaven here and hereafter she gives the strongest possible illustration of the intensity and sincerity of her convictions now could it be said in this community that the tho hindmo mother thus sacrificing her child would not be guilty of a crime the fiji islander taboa his aged and helpless parent to the woods and leaves him to starve or bo be devoured by wild beasts he does it under the dictates of a custom handed down for generations generation gand sand and which has become sacred in his eyes he believes it is in th the a ul discharge of a duty the indian widow is placed upon the tho funeral pile of her har deceased husband and the lire that consumes it consumes her tier these are illustrations gentlemen of the sincerity of conviction and the depth of error could these things be a allowed ic lu this country would lot not these be crimes crime and would the fact ft tl at theio there were victims of error set sel aside tilo the law of the land laud and legit inizie murdel murder now I 1 charge you gentlemen gentled n in this case that there must ha have ve beet been a criminal intent but that if the defendant under the influence of a religious belief that it was right under all an inspiration if you please pleasa that it was right deliberately married a second time having a first wife living the want of consciousness selous ness of evil intent the want ef of understanding on his part that lie he was committing a crime does not excuse him but the law inexorably in such case implies the criminal intent there is another view which the court feels it to be its duty to present to you upon the trial of this most important case it has been established by the witnesses for the defence that it is a part of a religious creed accepted by many mady by a very large portion of the community in which we live that it is right in the sight of heaven for a man having a living wife to marry ax adother other othen that gentlemen is the voice of this religious belief on the other hand equal with and moro more althe voice of the law the supreme power in this our land declares to you it is a crime here then is a conflict of opinion settled opinion honest opinion deliberate said to be inspired opinion coming with very little remoteness from heaven itself on ahe the one ene hand and the lawon law on the other gentleman there is no man and no community that can ever enter lato a conflict with the law with any reasonable hope of bf success the law may in a particular instance be evaded thu tho law on some occasion may be overturned but the law still pursues it still rises with unyielding energy and challenges to the combat and pursues the violators of its mandat mandate eq then the end is to be bd ag as sure as we sit here this conflict is to end and it is to end in the assertion of the supremacy of law I 1 then I 1 think it not improper in the discharge of your duties in this case should consider what are to be the consequences to the innocent victims of thir this delusion As this contest goes on they multiply and there minded 6 men and there are children innocent in a sense even beyond the degree of the tho innocence innocenc 6 of child hord itself these are to be the th e sufferers and as jurors furois fail to do their duty as these case casee come up in the territory of utah just so do these victims multiply and spread themselves over the land then gentlemen I 1 conclude what I 1 have to say by enjoining upon you the obligation of the oaths which you have taken the obligations which you owe to the tho corli community mun 1 ity of which you are members the obligations which you owe to the law and to humanity in view of these discharge your dutie duties q both to the defendant and the country |
