| Show THE RIGHTS BIGHTS OF WITNESSES ix IN these times of usurpation and excess of authority it is proper that the people should clearly understand their rights right a that they might know what course to pursue when those rights are assailed lawful authority should be upheld UP held and and those who lawfully represent it should be respected but the people have rights also and the law and its officers are supposed to be for or the of protecting them W when hen the power conferred upon individuals I 1 io 1 luc lae peace and guard the interest is used to oppress and annoy it is necessary that it should be removed or re resisted but all re resistance should be within the limits of law and that it ir a sy ay learn their own prerogatives and the limits of authority in officials A great many persons are wanted to appear before the courts as witnesses it is necessary to UP the th ends of justice that those who are required to give evidence should attend when properly summoned but there is a method provided by law for the summoning summon lug of witnesses and unless that is followed citizens are not bound to respond any impostor might go about notifying people to leave their homes to appear it at court at a given time but nobody would be under obligations to pay any attention to his bis demands the process in law by which tha attendance of a witness is required is called a subpoena it is a written document not a verbal order it must be signed and issued aed by a magistrate prosecuting attorney or clerk of a court it is directed to a given person and specifies where and when he is required to attend as a witness it may also direct him to bring with him books or papers or such other things in his control as he is bound by law to produce when required but this does not apply to private books papers or other documents in which the public have no concern A subpoena is served by showing the original and delivering a copy or a ticket containing its substance to the witness personally or by leaving a opy copy c with some suitable person at the e place lace of his abode giving or ober offering I 1 EO 0 himmat the same time if demanded debande ng by y hirthe fees to which he is entitled f for or travel to and from the place designated and one days attendance there the witness must be allowed a reason able time for preparation and travel to the place of attendance this is the provision of the law in civil cases the criminal law provides that the service of a subpoena is made by show ing the original to the witness personally ilithe and in informing or arming him of its contents except he is present in court or before a judicial cial officer in any case a witness in not subpoenaed without a writ or order made out in due form as we have described when a rude rade person obtrudes himself into a house or presence and exclaims you are subpoenaed aed or 1 I subpoena youl without any document duly issued by b competent authority no notice aie need be taken of his bluster even if he is known or supposed to be one of those mated inflated masses of gigantic importance called deputy marshals it makes no difference he has no move more right to order a witness to appear by word of mouth than he has to arrest an accused person or break into a building without a warrant be lato ems cus tody on a subpoena when a witness fails to appear after being properly summoned the court may issue an attachment or warrant of arrest and alid the disobedient witness may be b punished by the court for contempt but officers cannot compel any one to go with them by virtue of a subpoena except in a civil proceeding one against the other or a proceeding for a crime committed by one against the other a husband cannot be required to act as a witness against this wife nor the wife against the husband without mutual consent when legal wives are questioned before grand uries juries in cases against their husbands they can ref refuse use to testify no matter how much the attorney or other inquisitor may try to extort information the attempt to induce lent legal wives to testify against their husbands Is itself an infraction of the law and to be despised and opposed when witnesses are taken before a grand jury and required to swear that they will not reveal the questions asked or their an answers they may reluse to take such a an a oath there is no law that requires it it is an JIM imposition al that Is continually practiced eso upon med persons such buch an oath as many have been required aired to take to is not binding in law witnesses witnesses may be sworn to tell the truth but not to preserve se cresy that is 10 one of 01 the instances of excess of authority to which the people of utah are becoming accustomed witnesses are often asked in open curt court as to their testimony before the grand jury and attempts are wide made to bewilder and confuse them by statements that they gave different evidence before the grand jury to that in open court this thih is all wrong and for r their own protection witnesses before a grand jury have just as much mach right to take notes of the questions propounded and their answers as the prosecuting attorney at ogden had bad in a recent case to prod produce nee a memorandum of such much questions and answers to aid him in in examining witnesses in court witnesses have as much right to a memorandum to refresh their memory as ae a prosecuting officer has for a similar purpose self belt protection besides being a law of nature becomes a rule of necessity in ia such peculiar times as these A clergyman or priest cannot be required to testify as to any confession made to him in hits his professional character without the consent of the person making the confession neither can a physician e L nor or surgeon be compelled to efly disclose clo e any information acquired in attending a patient which was necessary to enable him to act lor for the patient without the lat tatters batters consent witnesses we aie not required by law to testify as to what they think or imagine or believe but as to what they know of their own knowledge if the they theado ydo do not really know of a fact or occurrence on which they are questioned they need not testify to it or try to magnify their belief into knowledge repute rumor common talk hearsay conjecture are not knowledge aud and 1 I do not know is a proper answer in the absence of actual knowledge A witness is not perjured who makes such bach answer when he does not know but he be is perjured when he be says he knows of a thing and he does not we have no disposition to say or do anything to obstruct the administration of justice but we have a desire to see the public protected in their rights we make these remarks for the benefit ene of people liable to be imposed upon jy by unwarranted authority and because we know that in many instances not only has the law been stretched to its utmost limits and construed beyond reasonable bounds but the unsophisticated have been browbeaten brow beaten and terrorized and the law has been overstepped over stepped and violated in the reckless crusa crusade e against a people singled out for destruction because of their attachment to religious principles that are dearer to them than life |
