Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-01-24
Che GssfS County 9]rrala.
ISLAND POND, JAN. "a, 1879.
The Press on the Phair Case.

lOuS NiiiSs iRobhNN wan NOAi
ments and diff !rent versions of
the Phair case, and the antag-
onisms on the subject between
different newspaper men, a.
mounting even to personalities
ought to lead us to serious re-
Election upon the duty of the
press: and to ask ourselves
whether we are at all times
quite careful enough in the dis
cussion of cases fraught with
such terrible consequences to
the public and the accused. And
whether at all times, we, in the
best manner publish things
in the interest and safety of the
community rather than in a SEN
sational manner to attract at
tention. If the press is regard
ed important as conservators of
the public peace, we ought care
fully to guard it, so that it shall
not only accomplish those pur-
poses, but that the reading pub
lie shall have confidence that
it is SO doing. Of course it is
the duty of the press to give all
facts to the public proper to be
published, relating to any case
in which the people at large are
interested. But when this is
done with the view of creating
public sentiment, Or creating
~adherents to the peculiar views
of any paper for the purpose of
creating a following so as TO
interest a certain class in the
future publications of that pa
per, the tendency is to create a
partisan and an unhealthy SEN
timent in the community out of
which the tryers Of the case are
to be taken. Instead of Great
ing a healthy intelligence in the
jury who are to try the case, it
stills them with the partisan and
often incorrect notions running
through the particular papers
read by each juryman. Take a
recent issue of the Boston
Journal, and it puts the Phair
case upon single thread of
circumstances, and leaves a
strong inference that it is al.
most conclusive Of the prison
er's innocence. Now this may
be all so, but weuld it not be
better to leave the jury free
from the influence of such az
guments, based upon a small
fraction of the evidence, than
for them to go into the jury-box
with impressions which they
unconsciously possess, without
,realizing from whence they are
derived, OF fully approaching
their influence upon their judg-
ment. 1t is safe to assume that
the writer Of that article or any
other like one in that paper, is
writing directly to majority of
the jurymen who will try the
case if a new trial shall be
granted. Now if Phair is in
nocent, and such articles shall
induce the jury so to declare,
then it is well. But this brings
us directly round again to the
question Is it not better that
the jury decide upon the guilt
or innocence OF the prisoner
upon the evidence given them
in court, and upon facts deduc-
ed therefrom by process which
law and experience find the
most safe, and not from impress
sions or statements which they
have got outside the courtroom
and which cannot be tested by
any rule, and which cannot be
traced so as to be guarded
against by the court, or proper
.ly used by the jury?
Murders in Vermont are get
ting VIGOROUSLY common, con-
victions and executions are
growing less frequent. Around
every murderer under convic-
tion in the State, are gathered
a large crowd of sympathizers
and defenders, created mostly
by irregular and disjointed dis
cussions by the press To speak
to a juryman while on trial, or
during the term at which a case
may be tried about a matter he
may have in charge, subjects