OCR Text |
Show THE YANDERCOOK CASE. Argument of Counsel Before tSie , Third District Court. ' Alarge crowd of eager listeners filled the Third District Court room to-day to hear the Vandercook habeas corpus case before Judge Jane. Judge McBride conducted con-ducted the defense, and Williams & Young, Franklin J). Richards and Attorney At-torney Waddell appeared for the prosecution. prosecu-tion. On request of Marshal Ireland through Mr. Varian, Mr. Vandercook was excused from appearing on account of some important im-portant official work to perform. Judge McBride moved the court for the discharge of Defendant Vandercook on the following grounds : First The complaint com-plaint does not charge the petitioner with any offense. Second The warrant issued is-sued pursuant to said complaint is void, for reason that no sufficient complaint existed for its issue. Third Said justice's court has no jurisdiction to'" try the alleged al-leged offense, the same, if any offense, being only punishable by indictment, regularly found by a. Grand Jury in the District Court. The whole forenoon was consumed by Judge McBride in an exhaustivexplosion j I of the complaint, which was shown to be defective throughout its construction. The charging of lewdness constituted NO GROUNDS FOR A CRIME Being committed by the defendant: The Utah legislators, in forming the present code, conferred certain powers upon the Justice's Court beyond the power set forth in the Organic Act. The Constitu tion of the United States provides that every man 6hall be entitled to a trial by twelve jurymen, and not subjected to a trial by six, as the statute of Utah confers con-fers upon a Justice's Court. The phrase "prostitution" is only applicable to females, and has no bearing to the male sex at all. Utah is the only spot in the Union where there is no law against adultery, fornication and in? cest, which are. sexual crimes the wide universe over. The legislators repealed the prohibitory laws against fornication and adultery, and provide no punishment for these crimes. The punishment of incest never was upon the statute books of Utah. The makers of the law have lumped matters off in a loose manner under such vague and general terms as "lewdness," which is 'necessarily left for the Court to interpret. The dnfpndant in this case cannot know what to plead when the charges are not definitely stated and made clear. . The term, "resort," "re-sort," means frequenting a place, and does not become a crime on a single visitation, as the word clearly implies. The defendant defend-ant is charged with but a single visit to the place and the purpose for going is not yet made known. To inveigle a person into a place under false pretenses is one thing and quite different from a voluntary volun-tary visit even should the grounds of crime be established in a case. A justice's court is limited in civil cases to $300, and in criminal suits the limit is placed at $300 and six month's imprisonment. It is plain to see how this law admits of a magistrate's discretion and thwarts the district courts in their jurisdiction. These present trials are most exciting, and they are NOT WAGED FOR THE GOOD OF rCBLIC MORALS So much as to heap calumny and disgrace dis-grace upon the element called the Gentile Gen-tile party. To take from the District Court such cases and place them in the Justice's Court is to make a mockery of justice, as has often been witnessed in this community. The charges are ground- ; less in this case, and as it goes so will follow the others in the wake. At 2 o'clock this afternoon Le Grande Younsr delivered a lnnpthv Rnpocb in re position to the many points produced bv J udge McBride. Young was followed bv Mr. Parley Williams, who furthe'r spoke for the respondents, and cited many authorities in support of the right to try the case in the Justice's Court, where the suit was started. It was claimed that the respondents respond-ents have jurisdiction concurrent with the District Court, with the exception of a Grand Jury, and bufsix for a petit jury in place of twelve as provided in the higher court. The case proved the most exciting one of the season and will probably prob-ably continue to-morrow. |