New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-03-11


Philistinism. But it is as yet too early to
come to any such conclusion. There is no
reason to fear that chaos will come to the
Peninsula, even if the Federal Republic is
proclaimed, before they are quite ready for 1t.
JURY Trials.
II seemed to be generally understood when
the Jury in the Scannell case was locked up
on Friday night that the trial was to end in
q disagreement. There was not much sur
prise, therefore, when Judge Brady discharged
the Jurors without verdict, after only one
nights detention, and curious as their be-
havior was on Saturday morning nobody sup
poses that they could have been forced to IA
tional conclusion if the court had insisted upon
keeping them together. Yet this was case
which presented no especial difficulties. The
District Attorney is said to have regarded it
as the strongest of the many murder cases
awaiting trial. All the evidence was direct
and the witnesses were unimpeached. III
Jury could not find a verdict in the
Scanneu case, then we fear there Is
no murderer who may not escape a
conviction provided he have a clever lawyer.
The twelve men who found William
Foster guilty believed that they had qualified
their verdict by recommendation to mercy,
and have since endeavOred to undo their
work The conviction of Stokes caused uni
yersal surprise even among those who knew
it TO be no more than simple justice-sO much
surprise that the public has been puzzled ever
since to account for it !; some ascribing 1T to
improper influences and the use of Fisk's
money; Others to the obstinacy of the prisoner
in prescribing his own line of defense. So
common a thing is it for our jury system to
break down, even when it is subjected to no
great strain, that a prompt verdict OF guilty
in a capital cause is one of the rarest OF acct
dents; and murder u.s. of all crimes in the cal
endar, the one of which the punishment Is
hardest and most uncertain.
In some measure this is attributable, no
doubt, to an underlined repugnaRce to hang
ing. The least sensitive, the least humane
juryman instinctively recoils, with half un-
conscious loathing, from a verdict by which
he makes himself the eOmrade of the common
hangmau. Until we can eradicate this natural
sentiment from the human bosom, we shall
never make the cOnrse of justice as easy in
dealing with the gravest form of crime as it
ia with such lesser Offenses as forgery and
theft Thousands who feel no conjunction in
cOpsiening dishonest cashier to life's i'm
prisonment and the everlasting brand of
convicted felon, would trick their conscience
and palter with their oath rather than put a
rope about the neck even of the Isle of
Shoals murderer, or the assassin of Amelia
Shockey. But this is by no means the whole
secret of the difficulty. Abolish the death
penalty (as you must before many years., and
you will still have to reform the
jury system before you can make
sure of the punishment of any
great criminal who has money and friends. The
prepesterous rule which practically excludes
from a jury every man who has intelligence
enough to know his own mind about notorious
events, or interest enough in public affairs to
understand what is in everybody's mouth;
which asks grave and well-considered opin-
ion, but exacts that the men who give it shall
not be in the habit of having any opinions;
which submits the incest points of evidence to
those wlm go through life with blind eyes and
deaf ears, and lays intricate argument before
those who never think; which demands not
that juryman shall be honest or reputable,
but only that he shall be ignorant this rule
fills the jury box in all grave criminal cases
with the class of men least capable of render
ing an intelligent verdict and most likely to
render dishonest one. Nor is this all. Hay
ing done all in its power to predispose the
jury to improper influences, the law gives the
criminal tremendous advantage over the public
by exacting that the verdict shall be unanimous.
IL one among the twelve can be bought, the
eleven withstand him in vain. Probably not
an intelligent man in New-York doubts that
our ridiculous jury law, coupled with the mis-
takes of the prosecution, saved William NJ.
Tweed from Sing Sing last January. The
shrewdness of the defense placed in the box
liquor-dealers from Tweed's district, cOnvcts
from Sing Sing, q Custom-house agent who
had been an ally of Judge Barnard, and at
least one member of the Americas Club; and
the counsel for the people had not the wit to
keep them out. "That jury will never con-
"vict Tweed" said every man who knew the
secrets of New-York life. Disagreement was
a foregone conclusion. Were the jury bribed
No one but Mr.. Tweed and a few of his
friends can tell but certainly IL he wanted
to spend money in that way the law and the
lawyers together had given him o splendid