The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-03-16


in his office for that purpose, "to be drawn
"by the sheriff, as provided by law" The
judges of the county court are required to
designate the towns from which the grand
and petit Jury shall be summoned, and the
number from each town, whereupon the
county clerk is to issue a "venire" for
summoning them, and deliver the same to
the sheriff. The statute then provides as
follows "The sheriff or his deputy, on
receiving venire for grand or petit
"jury, shall repair to the office of the
"town clerk in each town mentioned In
I" the venre, and in the presence of such
"town clerk, or one of the selectmen of
." such town, draw out of the box contain
81 ing the names Of the persons nominated
"by the authority of such town to serve
as grand or petit jurors, as the case may
"be, the number of names he is required
"to summon from such town; such Off
Ger to summon the persons so drawn by
reading the venre in their hearing and
notifying them respectively Of their being
drawn to serve as jurors, or by leaving
copy of the venire, with proper return
endorsed thereon, at the residence Of the
person to be summoned.
The end aimed at-the securing of an
Impartial jury"-as well as the mode by
which II is to be assured would seem to be
sufficiently apparent. But even where the
letter of the law is strictly adhered to, the
end of the law is not accomplished. Jury
lists frequently disclose the fact that the
nominating power are the very men named
as Jurors and instances are know where
the list contains only the names of such
persons. Can an Impartial jury" be Sc
lected in this way? Moreover, instances
are not uncommon-we have them here in
Rutand-where individuals have request
| ed of the board of civil authority, or some
of them, that they might be selected as
| jurors, and they have been selected ac-
cordingly. 1t is stated that in neighoor-
ing county, within very few years, a
grand jury was selected for the very pur-
pose of ignoring an indictment against
certain parties charged with high crimes
certain individuals visiting the several
towns, and so fixing" the board of civil
authority that the end was accomplished.
But there is not always, even, a pretense
of adbering to the letter of the law. We
are informed by an ex-deputy sheriff that,
when he was in office, it was the custom Of
the then sheriff to write to the town clerk
of certain town to draw given number
of jurors, and that the jurors were sc
drawn by the town clerk without the pres.
ence of an officer or any other person. We
say "drawn," we should say Selected,
because there was nothing to show tina,
the names were ever placed in box as re-
CURED by law.
There is another case, and it is believed
to have frequently happened-it is known
to have occurred once, and that recently
A venire was issued, as provided for by
law, for the summoning of given number
of jurors from q town the venre wa
placed in the hands OF person who wa
neither sheriff or deputy sheriff, unless
he was made one for this special occasion
this person, or officer, proceeded to th
town clerks office, procured certain papers
made some memoranda, and took his de
parture. He had "drawn the jurors" from
the town, although the word Juror" wa
not mentioned, no box was produced, ant
he saw no names ''9pD,inated" by tn
board of civil authority and "chosen by tn
inhabitante.' Written separate piece
"of PAPER and put in box kept for tina
purpose "to be drawn by the sheriff, as i
"provided by law" The officer or persol
so selecting jurors was one of the individ
uals selected as juror, as he had been fire
quently in years past.
Such a state of facts requires no parti
cular comment. Such practices result il
packing the jury they give us that mos
dangerous and contemplate of all objects
the professional juryman"; they result i
denial of justice; they unsettle complete
litigation, because the courts have fre
quently and uniformly decided that verdict
rendered by jury selected, instead of bt
ing drawn by lot, will be set aside and hel
for naught. TIE prevalence of such prat
tees justifes us in recurring, as we have
to fundamental principles.
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