| Show FALSE imprisonment THE tae imprisonment of mr goddard in n the penitentiary on the 25 ih uit suggests some considerations worthy of attention without touching on the merits of the dispute for the possession of the property over which the di difficulty arose or upon the apparent mixing and mingling together of the duties of marshal and receiver by the officer making tho arrest arrests we would like to know by what authority the arrested person was confined in the penitentiary 18 among convicted felons the statute in relation to jails jalis defines the uses to which they shall be put in this territory from which we learn that the proper place for the confinement of any person committed on civil process Is the county jail the penitentiary is for convicts and we claim that the imprisonment of 0 persons other than those convicted and sentenced to confinement in that place is unlawful and therefore liable to legal action for false imprisonment according to the sta tn ti im 1111 pran L 4 ui or une lae executors in the penitentiary was an illegal act among other purposes for which the county jails are to be used are the following as may be seen from section 2362 compiled laws of utah for the confinement of persons committed for contempt or upon civil process or by other authority of law i there ia is a great outcry against tho mormons cormons Mor mons because of their alleged violation of a law of the land and all alt the machinery of courts the eloquence of the pulpit and the scurrility of a depraved press are invoked for their punishment and denunciation we think that choie whose duty it is to execute the law should themselves respect the law and thus be its exemplars emp lars the laws of this territory which have received the tacit endorsement of congress are as valid and binding upon those who live in the territory as any statute of the united states we have quoted from one of them it is clear plain and unmistakable the county jail is the lawful place for the incarceration of persons committed on civil process and unless they have been tried and convicted on a grave criminal charge the they y cannot be properly imprisoned in in the penitentiary as any one may learn by reading the tha laws in relation to the penitentiary and county jails false imprisonment Is thus defined and made punishable by statute I 1 false imprisonment is the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another false imprisonment is punishable by fine not exceeding three thousand dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year or by both compiled laws see bee 1946 7 if imprisoning in the peni pani penitentiary with the worst kind of core a person who by law can or oni ori 0 i ly be con confined in the county ji JO as nat unlawful violation counti counts of is 1 liber ilber I t ty what force is there in the english language we have no desire to interfere with any officer in the discharge of his duty norto nor to find fault with any one who is required to execute legal process auf but we claim the right to point out any excess of duty or unlawful performance thereof and consider we have shown that the imprisonment of the executors and mr goddard and particularly the latter is contrary to the statutes in bach sich cases made and prove provided ded |
