OCR Text |
Show UNWRITTEN LAW IN UTAH. And now Utah is to be called on to say whether the unwritten law can be pleaded in justification of the killing; of a man. A New York jury evaded the issue in the Thaw case by declaring the slayer of White to be a paranoic, but in many other states, particularly the Southern States, juries quite often go outside the strict construe tion of the statutes and free men who, in the protection of their5 homes, kill those offending against them and society. John A. Jones, a mail clerk, finding his wife consorting with Arthur F . Sheppard and the two in the act of registering in a Salt lake hotel as man and wife, killed Sheppard. The guilty couple had been in Ogden and, in taking the night train to Zion, came face o face with the outraged husband. If Jones had known of this liaison and awaited his chance to kill, he is scarcely within the pro tection of even the unwritten law, but if, suddenly confronted with the perfidy of his wif e and her lover, a brain storm swept away his 1 self-control, then, law or no law, he is entitled to the deepest sympathy sym-pathy and the greatest possible degree of leniency. A woman with Mrs. Jones' peculiar disregard of honor and chastity is scarcely worth the sacrifice of a man even as unprincipled unprin-cipled and low as Shepord is represented to have been and her hui.and s most serious error was in failing to dismiss her from his home and thoughts as one would throw off a viper or any ?tsr venomous thing. a ouier |