The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-03-20

! IFleluASSs islu WHAT ne SAOuIu 10
You and I know thai the plea of mot
guilty" is simply request, on the part
I of the pleader, for trial.
/ But how was this boy to know it?
+ There was no one in the large assem-
blage that recognized him. He was
alone. Had he been suddenly shot into
/ the court roomfrom the center of the
earth, he could not have found himself
among greater strangers.
And not only were all the people
about him strangers merely. They were
opposed TO him They were enemies Of
/ his.
( The clerk had read charge against
him. The district attorney was now
standing before him, ready to prove the
allegations. The judge was sitting
gravely in his chair, prepared to listen
to this proof, WITHOUT passion or favor.
The sherifs who held him in custody
were jealous of every move that he made.
| The spectators in the rear of the room,
like all spectators of such scenes, thought
poorly of acquittals unless preceded by
eloquent wrangles of counsel, and they
demanded, for the sake of their emo
tions, conviction.
He was in the midst of adverslty-
There was no one TO guard him, or TO
sympathize with him.
His father was not there. Neither was
his mother, nor his employer, nor his
Sabboth-school teacher, nor any one
friend or acquaintace.
He was caught inextricably III the
mysterious and deeadful machinery of
the law, and he did not know where TO
look for help, or how to ask for it.
And what could have been more clear
than that so Youthful novitiate in
crime deserved and needed help?
The judge would have been right had
he caused a plea of mot guilty" to be
entered, and assigned to the boy the SER
vices of a lawyer. The obligation upon
him to do it was imperative.
But he did not do it!
The boy was hidden to reply to the
question of the clerk He gave the on
ly answer that he could give. He knew
he was guilty. He also knew that it
was matter of common notoriety that
he was guilty. He had been upbraided
and reproached for his guilt for a great
er part of the previous sixty hours. He
had already admitted it in the Jefferson
Market Police Court.
Therefore he readily admitted it sec
ond time.
He answered, 81 am guilty"
That is, he supposed he admitted, for
the second time, what he had admitted
once before, to wit, 81 am guilty of steal
ing from the complainant's hand her
wallet"
He made lamentable mistake. He
pleaded guilty, unwittingly, to one of
the most heinous of the whole calender
of crimes, namely, robbery in the first
degreew
"How was this made possible?" you
wonder.
Easily enough The explanation is
as follows:
At about that time several thefts from
the person, accompanied by assault, had
been made by men of bad character in
termined to put down the disposition to
this mode of crime. The method adop-
ted to accomplish the end was extraordi-
nary.
In the offices of the prosecuting attor-
neys it was privately agreed that the
next case OF larceny, of the kind indica-
ted, that came up before the court,
should be summarily elevated into the
class of felonies to which belonged
highway robbery, and robbery by force
of arms, etc; crimes, which in olden
times, were punished by decapitation or
| hanging.
In other words, by an agreement, not
by authorized or legal enactment, it was
determined to inAict, if possible, upon
the very prisoner indicted for this minor
ofensc the fearful punishment intended
| by law for major one.
This next prisoner happened to be
Gott.
To his misdemeanor, which was one
of the simplest forms of theft, the peo-
ple's counsel determined to apply the
penalty designed for crime greater, in
the eyes of the law, than several of the
degrees of manslaughter!
What was their purpose in this deter
mination?
Nothing less than to intimidate other
wicked persons who might be disposed
to commit a crime of the lesser magni-
tude That is in order to strike terror
into the hearts of those that had not
time, be thinking of SHINING, they
sought to punish Gott for crime that he
did not commit.
They ignored the well considered law
which fixed penalty for certain def
mite offense, and, instead of setting the
police actively at work to catch all the
pose of treating them with just and law
full severity, they pitched hap-hazzard
upon the first wretch that could be made
available for the purpose, and proceeded
to cover him with SORROWS and retribu-
tions enormously beyond his offense.
To cover their way to this end, they
tried to fasten upon the lad charge Of
assault"
Had this charge been sustained, his
: crime would, technically, have been a
greater one than it actually was. Blu
1t arGs not sustained.
The boy cried out in court, as ha;
been related, that he did not strike the
lady.
This was plea of mot guilty" to ;
: most important portion of the indict
: ment.
!, But this plea was ignored when thu