Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1858-12-06
For the Leader.
The Herald and the Plain Dealer on the
Jury in the Cole Case.

The Herald and the Plain Dealer on the
Jury in the Cole Case.
The comments of the Herald and Plain
Dealer upon the action of the Jury at the
recent trial of Hiram Cole, cannot be too
strongly condemned by all true friends of
law and justice. 1t is a new precedent which
these papers are endeavoring to establish
one which strikes at the very foundation Of
our boasted safeguards of personal rights
l do not design to discuss the merits of the
Cole case, and will admit, for the sake of argu-
ment, that their verdict in their editorial capa-
city, is more likely to be correct, than that of
any Jury that could be selected in Geauga or
Ashtabula county, acting under the sanction of
an oath and the instruction of Court but,
whether right or wrong,-whether Cole is gull
ty or innocent-what becomes of our ancient
right of trial by Jury, of Judicial purity and in
dependence, if the press is to dictate what ver-
diets shall be rendered, and what judgments
pronounced, in our courts of Justicel The
course of the Herald and Plain Dealer, in re-
gard to the Cole case, Especially that Of the
PLAIN Dealer y has, from the first, been an out
rage upon the name Of Justice While Cole
was in Jail, awaiting his first trial, the PLAIN
Dealer paraded before its readers what purport-
ed to be an outline of the facts in his case, il
lustrated by miserable wood-cut of "the wife
poisOner;" and, at the commencement of the
last trial, with strange impropriety, to say the
least,) stated that evidence had been procured
of such nature that no Jury could again dis
agree. The Jury at the first trial,-notwith-
standing the known ability of the principal
prosecuting lawyer, and strong outside pres
sure in favor of conviction,-failed to agree,
and were subjected to scandalous comments
from the Cleveland press; and, as a second Jury
have seen fit to aequit Cole, it seems they are
doomed to suffer the same indignity.
The remarks of the Herald and Plain Dealer
amount to this that, whatever might be the
facts or the law adduced at the trial, the Jury
were bound to render verdict of guilty; that
they should exercise no discretion in the mat
ter. They tell US that the public had adiudged
Cole guilty, and the Jury should return a YER
dict in accordance with that Judgment, or sub.
NIT to the imputatiOn of perjury or gross stu
pidity. Is this justice Where, then, is the
presumption so long deemed necessary to pro-
tect the rights of the accused, and insure the
impartial administration of justice,-that every
man is innocent until proved to be guilty
MIR. Gray says that wife-poisoning is becom-
ing quite fashionable, and therefore seems to
conclude that Cole should have been convicted |
let the evidence be what it might Pray tell |
Il. 4 r
state of affairs Who does not know that Mr..
Gray himself is doing more to encourage crime,
by parading the vulgar details of criminal trials
with his wood cuts, before his readers, and
using his influence to bring Courts and Jnies
into contempt, than could be done by a thousand
acquittals for want of sufficient evidence TO
convict
The Herald and PLAIN Dealer proclaim that
innocent wives may now be poisoned with i'm
punity in effect, inviting all evil-disposed hus-
bands to do their worst Would the verdict of |
the Ashtabula jury, without such an interpre-
tatiOn, have so baneful an influenced
The Plain Dealer cOOlIy intmatcs that, if
juries will not render such yerdicts as the pub
lie require-if they will persist in "reuersing
the decisions" of the public, the popular tribunal
must take the law into its own hands, We |
should not be surprised if the PLAN Dealer
should yet propose to dispense with civil gov |
ernment entirely, and let the ''UoI populT' pre-
vail
One of the primary objects of the gov
ernment is to take the execution of the law out |
of the hands of the multitude From the earli- |
est history of the world mankind has felt the ne
cessity of a safer tribunal for the administration
of justice. If society, as now organized, fails |
to promote its ends, let us devote ourselves to
the work of Its reorganization; but, while it
remains in its present state, let us maintain the
independence of all the tribunals it has estab-
lished to promote the general welfare. So long
as trial by jury, and not by the press, is the
means provided to ascertain the guilt or inno-
eence of the accused, all attempts to bring jures
and their verdicts into contempt, will be repro
bated by all right minded and honorable men If
the press may determine who should be con-
yicted, it may determine who should be aequit-
ted-n short, it may take the law into its own
hands.
If the guilt of Hiram Cole was established
from the first, why 20 through with the idle
fOrmality, if not ridiculous farce, of a trial by
jury If the Press is tribunal above Courts
and Juries, why not submit all cases to that tri-
bunal, as they arise! Why involve the County
of Geauga in enormous and needless expense,
when Messrs. Gray and Benedict, as selfcOn-
stituted guardians of the public welfare, are
willing to decide the Cole case for nothing If
the evidence to be obtained from the meager
reports of nOndescripts who smell about Jury
rooms after the prirate opiniOaS of the Jurors,
is more likely to lead to a correct judgment, than
the full testimony of living witnesses at trials,
let these editors give hasty glance at it, and
pronounce their judgment accordingly. Or, if .
there be found majority of stubborn conserva-
tlves who are unwilling to yield up the time
honOred right of trial by Jury, let Jurors be
selected for their known want of all conScieh- {
tiOus SerupIes," and sworn, not, as now, to give
verdict according to the erideRce," but to give
4 verdict in accordance with publie opinion, as {
made known in the editorials of such journals
IS claim to expound it. When such a state of !
hings is brought about, trust all will bow with
becoming Difference to the decisions of the new q
tribunal; but, until then, if trial by jury is to
be anything better than a mockery, all outside E
interference must be condemned and repudiated.
JUSTICE.