The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-26
THE LATEST FARCE.

The result of the Berner murder trial in
Cincinnati has caused the deepest feeling
among all classes. Six times the prisoner had
confessed to his participation in the most
brutal and cold blooded butchery, giving all
the details of the horrid affair, and only few
days before his trial had offered to plead guilty
to murder in the second degree, the prosecutor
refusing on behalf of the public, as the
evidence was absolute and unquestioned. Yet
the jury brought in verdict of manslaughter
only. The finding is condemned in the
severest terms everywhere, by the people and
by the papers. The News Journal says;
'Such verdict, in the face of such testimony
and under the law as laid down by the court,
is monstrous outrage shocking to all sense
of justice, and Infamous in the sight of all
honest men. If Colonel Weitzels assertion
that post of the Grand Army of the Republic
is organized to relieve the courts in the mat
ter of dealing with murderers is true, the
necessity of such relief must now make itself
felt" The local report of the Commercial
Gazette gives a vivid description of the
scenes attending the dismissal of the jury and
their leaving the courtroom The twelve
men went first to the treasury to draw their
pay and
Clearing that they were in that Office
the crowd pressed about the treasury door.
The jurors all looked anxious and some of
Il. IL El,1,, loJ
Having received their money the foreman, A.
F. Shaw, opened the door and pushed out
through the crowd followed closely by two
others. Hang them,' shouted the old man
with the cane and dozen others repeated
the cry Shaw pushed across the street to-
ward the Second National Bank, thanked by
his two companions. the crowd hooting and
kissing, and shouting Hang them, pressing
close upon their heels. Meanwhile the re
manning jurors had slipped quietly out of the
treasurers Office unobseryed, and were making
all haste to get away Two of them, Wesley
Skidmore and C. 7. Dollahan, ran up the
broad stairway of the court house and took
refuge in the Probate court room. After re-
naming there few minutes, they tremblingly
asked one of the janitors If they could not
get out of the building by some back way.
They were told they could, and were kindly
escorted down into the carpenters room, and
thence by an unfrequented passageway out
upon Court street. Run down the alley and
turn east, said their deliverer, and skipping
across Court street they hurried down the alley
in the rear of the Debolt Exchange. Some
one shouted in fun, there they go; hang
them, and the two frightened jurors doubled
their pace and disappeared around the corner
in the full belief there was mob pursuing
them"
1t is an anomalous condition Of things when
jury of American citizens are compelled to
flee for their lives, but it is better that there
should be such feeling of indignation rather
than one of complacency or Indifference over
such outIages upon law and justice. But
what is needed is not an ebullition of this kind
not the white heat of passion, which finds
vent in expressions of lynching, and then
cools off until again aroused. The demand is
for constant, steady, unswerved and I'M
swerving public opinion in favor of law and
justice and against law breaking of all kinds,
small as we'll as great, in little things as well
as in large ones; sound public opinion, out of
which courts, and juries, and lawyers will
come animated with the one purpose of seeing
that law is upheld, justice is meted out to the
lowest and poorest as well as to the highest and
the richest, and that society is protected
against all kinds of criminals and outlaws.