Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-06-22
THE T0i:rHIAN,S EXPLANATION.
How the Jury Came to Their Decision
-itcrdcll single-BarrcIicd Com
knIrurN


WAsniNGToN, ID. c., June li.-John II.
Crane, foreman of the S,ar-routc Jury, talk.
ing with reporter, after he had made his re-
port in court, said the jury had been regular
ly Organized like meeting" when they re-
tired, Edward c. Gill being chosen to act as
secretary. They had voted first CT the qrles-
ton as t. whether there was conspiracy. 1t
was then proposed after some discussion to
vote upon the guilt or innocence of tie indi-
viduals, which of e lursc would carry conspir-
acy with it, John Dorsey h AIDED the list
and We acquitted him the first night. Then
we came To Vale and acquitted him. Then
l think it stood 10 to . on Stephen Dorsey,
10 to on Brady and to 3 on Miner. That
is the way tn Jury stood up to this morning,
though | believe there was change of one
vote on Stephen Dorsey last night, making ii
stand II 10 III his case. We discussed the
case NJ 10 midnight the first night, and then
again the HtXt morning, as II regularly or
gained BODY After that the case would be
discussed in groups"
GLOW din! Tie jury regard the evidence of
Rer,cll:'
"Therr was not one of them that believed
q word tia Rcrdcl or Moore said or much
of wi at Wash said. 1t WAS an improbable
story thai Walsh would allow Brady to take
S25, coo i'll his notes from him and put them
into his pocket and then part with him like
philosopher. II Was too absurd. a man of
his ili ii BiudS should do such n ilirg was
likely at l,ilst 10 sing out, stop thief The
manufactured evidence continued Crane,
''of course, had great effect on the jury. AS
to the Chico letter and other things the Jury
felt tia, whlr there were undoubtedly some
suspicious things, there Were not Sufficient
circumstances, not enough positive evidence
TO warrant hrcaling up five families
"Did the jury think The government
counsel were engaged in manufacturing evil
dencc 7"
mo, but They did think the government
counsel ought to have Abandoned This evil
dencc when they saw what it was, and not
have tiled 10 sill make something ont of it,
Merrick tried to explain away the Cnico let
ter by saying it was written in 1919. The
government also made an effort to show that
Stephen Dorsey wrote many lands when the
jury was satisfied that the papers in question
were written by iicrdcll. These were the
things that rather hurt the prosecution than
did theta gp,d Tie jury" continued
Crane, WA aii,ic up Of better men than peo-
pie though. The colorcd men on the Jury
were Iour rs clear headed men as | ever
saw"
500 yon think any jurors were influenced
Improperly"
NO ~ moi. Duilug The whole
trial none ol the lawyers on either side
ever said an improper word to me. | don't
think the slightest influence was brought tc
bear upon any member of the jury. In fact
those Thought were going to acqut went in
for conviction"
"An interesting question is raised by thu
verdict in the cases of Reidel and Peck"
eyes, said Crane, 'that is an interesting
point. In the jury room, alter it was agreed
to acquil, one of the Jurors said 'Rerdell has
pleaded guilty of conspiracy, he can't bt
punished without one or more is connected
with him. Having acquitted all but one
Peck, WHO'S dead, it might look as thougl
Peck though dead was in the conspiracy wit
RerJell.' | said Rerdell was out of the case
1t seemed To me but due to Peek that
stigma should not be allowed to rest on hi
name and he should rot be required to stan
side by side with Rerdcll as consprators.
have no d uh, that the acquittal of the oil
ers CARR wit! it the acquittal of Peck, an
Rerdcll stands alone as guilty of conspiracy
Everything against Peck seemed to be til
same us against the others, aud the same al
piled To Peck as TO the others. If he la
been alive he would have been acquitted