| Show THE NEW ORLEANS whitewashed THE report of the grand jury at orleans in reference to the lynching lunching lyn ching of the italians is very unsatisfactory there la in plenty of it and it contains many interesting Inter epting particulars but it does not deal squarely with the main question the principal subject of tion was tho the unlawful killing of the victims of riot and the indictment of the persons responsible for the crime was the end to be kept in view instead of dealing direct with these objective points the report is chiefly devoted to the existence of the mafia the dereliction of duty manifested by the jury that tried the italians and the of lenses fenaes committed by certain individuals connected with a detective agenda agen of course the grand jury fury were in the line of their duty in finding indictments against the persons alleged to have engaged in other efforts to defeat justice but they have shown themselves incompetent or worse in their treatment of the offense which was specially before them for consideration the condition of public affairs in now new orleans disclosed by this report la jq I 1 truly A so called detective agency conducted by a criminal having baving for his partner a public prosecutor and for an agent a member of the pollee police force engaged in the practice of influencing fluen cing jurors juron managing affairs so BO that juries are largely composed of individuals attached to their interest is a formidable engine of evil that ought to be broken up effectually the corruption exposed in the report though it is rather too general in its narration and not sufficiently specific in its details is shob shocking king to the moral sense and needs heroic treatment the verdict of the jury that tried the italians is denounced and the general public charge that some of the jurors were bribed is echoed but nothing definite is shown against them nor are am any of them indicted it iu Is not made clear that the jury acted in a manner different from other juries when they cannot at first agree we do not wish to justify them in the least but merely mention the facts as they are set forth in the report the evident purpose of the grand jury in devoting so much of their report to denunciation of the conspirators the petit jury and the corrupting influences at work in new orleans to is to palliate the prime perpetrated by the mob and which they were specially required to investigate this to is made more apparent by the sophistical reasoning about the people not submitting the surrender of their rights into the hands of midnight assassins sas sins sil J etc about the condition of affairs being such that the law itself was well nigh powerless to deal with them 7 and the expression of a doubt that any power at the command ot the authorities has been sacrificed the gist ot of the report is a wholesale whitewashing of the promoters and perpetrators of the slaughter in the jail vt at new orleans this was not unexpected public sentiment was so strong and there were so many prominent men in the disgraceful affair that no one acquainted with the case believed the rioters or any of them would be was thought that for sake perhaps some of the ringleaders ring leaders would be indicted even if they were never convicted but the grand jury throughout this report show their intention to condone if not apologize for and approve the lawlessness of the new orleans mob and the unlawful killing of the acquitted italians they speak of the rioters as several thousand of the first best and even most law abiding citizens of the city that to is a nice description of a band of bloodthirsty blood thirsty men who slaughtered helpless prisoners while under the protection of the sworn officers of the law awl and what has their social standing ng to do with their innocence or guilt Is an accused person to escape indictment because he is in one of the first citi zens zensi if the grand jury were informed sufficiently in regard to individuals prominent in the riot to know that they were among the first best and most law abiding of the citizens did they not know enough about them to designate and indict them does the fact that so 89 many of the people were engaged in the offense against the law make it improper or inexpedient to indict such of their number as are known if it to is impossible to indict all is it wrong to indict some of them what would be thought of a grand jury who finding that they were unable to identify twenty or thirty persons accused of murder refused to indict half a dozen who were identified yet this is the po position eltion on a smaller scale occupied by the new orleans mud grand jury in their voluminous report if public affairs are in such ouch a condition in that city that the authorities have no power to protect prisoners nor punish people who kill them something ought to be done to establish there a truly civilized government the confession of the grand jury is a disgrace diagram to the city aty and its apology for the slaughter of eleven persons person who had been acquitted by a jury and who were held until another indictment might be found against them is one of the ever offered for a crime that will make a broad deep and damning blot upon the history of louisiana |
