The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1880-11-17

worthless. INSCRIPTIONS juries were OBJ
tained- The jury commissioner in Sc
Letting men for such work, usually pick
those OF known good standing and social
worth, but it is ten to one il any of
them are permitted to sit I'm ease
which from its very nature demands a
good jury. The regular jurors are or
dered To stand aside, one by one, till the
last is reached, and then the order is
given for the Sheriff tosummons another
lot from the by-standers. BY previous
arrangement the counsel for the defense
has number Of "fixedv men among
those by-standers, and the Common
wealth, having exhausted its five chaI-
ienges, is unable to prevent those men
from taking their seats as jurors unless
some specific charge can he proven
against them, and thus jury Of bribed
and perjured men is easily obtainesi.
With the benefit Of every doubt and the
burden Of proof on the Commonwealth.
prisoner, who has broken It's laws,
with being placed on an equal footing
with the Commonwealth, and we do
hope that our next Lawmakers win
have sufficient sense of justice to make
honors even- Then the
nature OF the question asked and the
answers required in nearly every case
excludes the intelligent and honest man
from juries. In this day Of newspaper,
he must indeed he an ignoramus who
does not hear of every murder and
other crime committed; but the fact
that he has heard of such crimes, or
even formed an opinion about them
should not prevent a far-minded man,
who can weigh evidence, from serving
rs a juror; but it does, and it 10 Just for
this reason that 81 many ignorant and
juries are foisted on the couu-
try. Another invention 10 ave erimi-
nals Is the law allowing a change of
when a witness can he found
and IL matters not what manner Of man
hat witness is-<to swear that in his
opinion the person ON trial could nos
get justice i'm the county in which the
rhine was committed IL Is easy enough
md less expensive Ia send To q county
half hundred miles away for q jury
{ AN unparalleled one cannot be found
jury thus obtained would
nave no way, after being empaneilesi,
If knowing the feelings Of the eommu-
lity against the accused
The better class OF people in this
state, and they largely predominate,
ire not to blame for the failure Of juries
o punish crime; the fault lies in the
aw, and "a radical change should be de-
Kentucky has been cursed
ong enough by unpublished crime, and
Inless "A halt, and very short one, is
allied, mur,ierers will get holder, the
ssassin will grow more defiant, and
instead of taking her high place in the
rogre-s of the States that nature in
ended for her, she will lapse hack into
barbarous condition. such verdicts
) that found in Jessamine whereby a
90. and deliberate murderer was allow
d to go scott free, with the sanction Of
he State ON his heartless deed, will
ring Us to tina; condition. The good
eOple, though, thank God, have been
ertainly aroused all over the State BY
be wanton Disregard Of the facts BY
hat jury, and are expressing their con-
Of il in unmessured terms;
nd it is earnestly hoped that they win
emand such a change in our criminal
lws as will prevent such legal krces in
BE- future .io,1sol