Show ANTI MORMON TRIAL BY JURY the sioux city journal of the alt contains a long account of an interview with J 1 P wilson U S marshal of idaho who had arrived at that place with four mor alor mons ss sentenced for infraction of he edmu edmunds ode act to various terms of imprisonment of from fifteen to twenty four months according to the journal he told some pretty tall stories of mormon ss life in idaho such as newspaper reporters love these we do not pro pose to retail they areef are of the usual style of romances eson on this hackneyed subject anti and are a mixture of a modicum pum of truth with a mass of fiction but the marshal informed the newspaper representative in regard to the manner in which cormons mormons Mor mons are con convicted feted in idaho and one item is worthy of notice said marshal wilson 1 I find the only sure way to convict a polygamist on such inch evidence as we can usually get is 14 to pick a jury from among the apostates who hate the mormons cormons very bitterly that this is a choice bit of open confession which the advocates of the beauties of trial by jury should copy and send forth to an admiring world Is this the sort of thing which the fathers of our country embodied in the su supreme law of the kanj as aa a guaranty of protection to persons a accused aused of crime in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed etc so says the constitution of the U united states trial by jury implies impartiality the very object and intent of it are to jo secure fairness to the accused the court with all its functionaries function aries Is i organized for the enforcement of the law the jury Isem is paneled em to protect the defendant anufrom from the undue zeal of the prosecution cu tion and at the same time deal out justice according to the facts in evi dence and the law as expounded by the judge jude A person charged with crime is entitled to a jury of his peers they rhy should be as nearly as possible from the cliss class to which he belongs under the old english law a foreigner on trial was entitled to have atheist at le bat harf of a jury J u ry composed coin posed of his own countrymen challenges are allowed foi the express purpose of eliminating from a jury all persons who hive any bias boror against the accused they should be entirely without prejudice courts often go to the extreme of excluding men who have bave become t familiar with the case to be tried through reading the newspapers or discussing iti bearings this is sometimes carried to the length of ah absurdity and so as to shut out from the jury box every person of ordinary intelligence avid and judgment this is an improper ertme in one direction 1 to place men on the jury who are known to have feelings against the defendant or the class to which lie belongs is an equally improper extreme in the other direction indeed it is a greater violation of the principles that underlie the system of trial by j jury u ry for if it is better that two guilty men escape than one innocent mati man be convicted then the greater gurl guard should be placed against the presence on the panel ofa brors biased agai against the accused f whether in idaho or in utah trial by jury according to the long established theory and the nakente in its favor has almost ceased to exist nn A n impart impartial lal jury of the district is well nigh an im possibility PO when a mormon is in peril under the anti polygamy laws men have been convicted against whom no real evidence has been adduced suspicious circumstances as depicted by a vehement and prejudiced prose prosecuting euti ng officer have been made to answer answer for absent evidence and the jury beisig always composed of persons picked out because of the their r antipathy to the class or creed to which the accused is attached the odds are all the time against the defendant and he be is practically without a friend iu in courts court and deprived of that protection which he would have in a A jury of his peers his attorney may inay be ever so able and earnest but that counts for little oi 01 nothing with a court and its officers and a jury all eager to convict it may be claimed that it is rare that a really innocent person is punished and we may be challenged to name one but that does not affect the fact nor the argument before the law properly administered every person is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty by evidence but in these territories the assumption seems to be the contrary A man accused of infraction of the edmunds law has in reality to prove his innocence if unable to do that and in some oases cases where he has proved it coll COB action has followed just the same As to the actual fact we may not be in III a position to prove anything that should not enter into the ques tion what we claim is that no uan man whatever he may be or is believed to be should be convicted of crime without evidence to establish his guilt and if there is a reasonable doubt through lack of proof he should have the benefit of the doubt as in other cases the rule 0 here is the reverse of this the doubt usually goes against him in idaho as the U S marshal has declared the evidence is ia usually so meagre that no BO fair juror would convict therefore a jury is picked for the purpose of convicting without due evidence and as apostate mormons cormons Mor mons are very bitter against their former core co re they are picked out to act as jurors in cases against mor mons was there ever a clearer instance of packing juries than this we do not believe that in the whole history of criminal jurisprudence there can be found a more flagrant violation of the essential principles of trial by jury the present delegate in congress from idaho who figures as a representative senta tive of idaho republicanism was formerly the U 8 marshal of that territory on OB one occasion when a large number of mormons cormons Mor mons were gathered in and the evidence against some of them was extremely thin and the attention of the marshal was called to the fact he exclaimed oh I 1 have got a jury here that would convict jesus christ if he wa was s placed on trial this to is authentic and we understand has been admitted by the delegate himself Mua self the prejudice prevailing against the cormons mormons Mor mons sP is widespread and deep it has been fostered for political ends and sectarian purposes the conviction of a mormon 9 1 is matter for congratulation among people of certain classes how the conviction was secured is not considered yet it would seem that when the very fundamental principles of civilized jurisprudence are trampled upon in eager haste to fine and imprison a mormon even the most puritanical religionist and violent political foe would call a halland halt and ury shame on oil such proceedings ce but who ever heard a professed minister of christ in any of the denominations which have been libed in utah or idaho utter a word of protest a against gai ast tb the e ma manifest 1 inaus nj us tice exhibited in the trial of mor mons or who ever knew of a professional politician claiming veneration for the constitution of our PI country and admiration of republican institutions to use his influence and eloquence against this prostitution of justice and violation of the supreme law let it be known throughout the land that trial by jury 12 in its cols COB and commonly andert under stood sense is denied to the mot mor mons both in utah and in idaho and that in the course pursued with refe reference to this proscribed class of american citizens the seeds are being sown which will produce a harvest of shame and sorrow and distress to others the prostitution of the jury power power in these cases cannot be confined to them alone its effects will be seen on matters apart from 41 mormon prosecutions and trial by jury will be regarded as very much of a farce in these regions and may lead to scenes that will be more inthe in the light of a tragedy |