Show c I THE SIMPSON CASE I The Tfsual Difficulty Experienced i I I Impaneling a Jury The case of the United States vs Thos Simpson charged with polygamy came up for trial in the Third District Court this morning Simpson it will be remembered re-membered was bound over by Commissioner Commis-sioner McKay last winter When the case was called this morning ing the defendant and his counsel Mr Whittcmore were present but three material witnesses for the prosecution were absent and attachments were issued for them Considerable time was spent in waiting for their appearance and a recess was takenuntil the officers could produce them At 1130 the case was resumed and the following jurorsjvere called James E Paine John Kellogg G D Schell Edward Bird W B Barton John McLaws 1 A Brim AY F Smith r R Nichols Edward Rotch George Lee Thomas E Jeremy jr The jurors were then examined by Mr Whittemore as to their statutory qualifications quali-fications Mr Barton had formed an opinion as to the guilt of the defendant and was excused The others were accepted ac-cepted by the defense The jurors were then examined hy Mr Dickson under the Edmunds law Mc Kcllar believed it was right for a man to have more than one wife and was excused ex-cused McLaws believed the same thing and thought it right for any man if he felt like it to have more than one wife Excused Ex-cused Smith thought it light i a man believed be-lieved in the tenets of the Mormon faith but could not say whether he believed it was right for a man who did not believe in those tenets Excused Thomas E Jeremy also believed in the practice of polygamy and was excused The other jurors were accepted by the prosecution J R Nichols was examined by the defense de-fense and was asked if it would require less evidence for him to convict a person charged with polygamy than any other offense He replied that it would require the same amount of evidence and no more to convict a man of the crime of polygamy that it would to convict him of murder horse stealing or anything else The other jurors made the same replies and were accepted These jurors were then sworn and five others were called to fill their places W S Crismon declined to answer whether he thought it right for a man to practice polygamy and was excused Robert Deighton said he was raised in the Mormon cliurch and did not know whether lie had ever been cut off He did not believe it right for a man to practice polygamy and did not believe the revelation sanctioning that practice came from God Passed McClelland and Felt bslieved it right and were excused Deighton was ch allenged peremptorily by the prosecution J W Walton was sworn and four more jurors called One of them Mr Knox was accepted making nine jurors in all But three jurors of the regular panel were left and one of them John D Spencer was absent but was sent for and brought into court A J Pendleton Jr was challenged peremptorily by the prosecution pros-ecution Mr Spence did not believe polygamy was right as it is practiced He thought the principle was right i a man was good enough but did not think there was any man good enough He believed the revelation sanctioning the practice was s spurious one but also believed be-lieved the principle had been revealed by God He believed the practice was wrong morally wrong and would be so in the absence of any law against it Mr Dickson exercised his third and last peremptory right on Mr Spencer who was therefore excused The regular panel was now exhausted and one more juror was needed A special venire of ten names was therefore ordered and court adjourned until 2 p in The entire afternoon session up to the time the DEMOCRAT went to press was spent in an unsuccessful attempt to secure one juror Nine of the ten ordered or-dered by the special venire were summoned and eight of them either did not possess the statutory stat-utory qualifications or believed it was right for a man to practice polygamy The remaining juror was challenged peremptorily per-emptorily by the defense A second special venire of ten names was ordered and this second installment is passing through the ordeal as the DEMOCRAT goes to press |