| Show bad law and gool good chrls COLUMBUS ky octoba october 1879 editors deseret some points of particular interest in the trial of the murderers of elder standing should be made mat ter of history and none deserve more notice than the ruling of judge mccutchen and his charge to the jury one very important po point I 1 nt was where he charged that if two or more persons combine to do an unlawful act not having as its object the destruction of human life and in the commission n of buch such an act one of those engaged gues goes beyond the original purpose and intention and commits a homicide in any of its degrees he alone is guilty of that nonae offense of and the others iu in the party are not guilty of the calme either as principals or accessories yli in this case it was proven that the parties came upon the elders with arms in their hands handa and forced them into a secluded spot in the woods and that previous to the ther actual act of killing the leader trader or the party stated staled to the eldera that they ahey intended to hang baug them thew if aver found in that section again it was also aleo proven that at a meeting held prior to the hilling killing it was decided to get rid of the elders lif they could but forcibly it if they ebey must and that they came armed to accomplish this object and in ita accomplishment elder was killed yet in the face of au alt this testimony the verdict for acquittal wab wats easily arrived at through the charge to tb the elury jury which ruady rundy only one man responsible aud one man nian an unknown one of a mob of twelve in contradiction to this charge chief J ustice justice lumpkin li of georgia in a parallel case charged thit lilt i jury is ry that if in the commis situ bitu cf of an unlawful act one of the law bruak ers era took the life ota ofa of a human tejar heing that all were guilty alike alibe each mana hand band struck tiie the blow each mans eye glanced along the narrel barrel of the gun and each mante ruann finger linger lulled the trigger that sent the deadly crashing tuto tutu the brain of heir common victim if I 1 mistake not this charge 0 of judge McC hutchen will yet return to vex the people of georgia for lor under it no mob can ever be pu punished la for tor the killing of har catiz uc which leaves the door very wide h indeed for men of vi viorence violence otence ie to perpetrate their deeds deeda ind and go whipped of justice all they have to do is to keep secret who actually did the act and all may go free three juries were selected 36 men in all and these men doubt less leas represented every shade of political and religious faith in the county of whitfield and by their decision they laid down the principle that it was not necessarily unlawful to kill hill a mormon eider elder but bub to enable them to asbert assert this they took from under their own feet the platform of safety and left their own heads barei barefi to the coming storm of while the trial triai was in pro fro greeb grees we noticed on a large blackboard at the end of the court room the cases set for four columns column representing four successive daye in reading over this list we found the names of jones vs jone jones smith va vs smith etc on lequir inquire we found seven cates cases of divo dipoce cc fur those four days and were that about thirty sezen seven easen casen were now pending before that court aud all these from one county the adjoining county of hamilton in tennessee had one hundred and thirty eight caseb cases of divorce at the last session of court and yet these are the good christian people who are so shocked at the marriage ideas of the latter day saints the variegated the way from coal black to nearly puro pure anglo saxon that sat on the set apart for their use testified of the practical workings of the principle of miscegenation and in the midst of all this the assassins of a servant of god could go free it would have been remarkable had bad it resulted otherwise very verb truly 1 JOHN MORGAN |
