Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-09-23
QUEER DECISIONS.
Prisoners Who Were Saved by Some Little
Legal Technically.

Prisoners Who Were Saved by Some Little
Legal Technicality.
[Cor. Cleveland Plaindealer.l
Judge McHenry, of Des Moines, Ia,
lately acquitted q prisoner charged with
selling Intoxicating liquors on the ground
that the indictment did not state whether
the offense was committed B. C. or A. d.
1886.
This calls to mind several queer de-
cisions that have fallen under my notice.
The first was the Indictment of man by
the name of Hoyle for selling liquor con-
trary to law.
Judge Jack son, lately an attorney of
Cleveland, now the president of New
Mexico gold mining company, at that
time common pleas judge, acquitted Hoyle
on the ground that the Indictment did not
show that the offense was committed in
the county in which the defendant re-
sided, while the saloon in which the
offense was committed was directly across
the street from the court house, in easy
speaking distance of His Honor on the
bench. But the most quaint of all de.
cisions was that of Judge illars, OF
Tiffin, o. All who know the Judge pro.
nounce him unquestionably the queer.
est, quaintest, yet, withal, the most In
tel1igent and best educated judge in Cen.
trail Ohio. That he has a vein of humor in
his makeup and appreciated "the draw
ing of the long bow" can readily be be.
lieved from the following:
At term of court held at Marion, O., al
which Pillars sat as judge, a man by the
name of Severn was indicted for stealing
hog. The proof of his guilt was un-
usually clear and strong. The hog, by the
broken bushes and marks of blood, was
tracked from the pen two miles into piece
of woodland behind the defendants house,
and the hog was found hung up in his
smoke-house.
The testimony for the State was con.
vincing, and no doubt was in the minds of
the jury as to the guilt of the accused,
who, by the way, was the only witness for
the defense. Severn stated that "when
coming by the pen one of the hogs became
suddenly enraged and, breaking out,
chased aim to his home, where he (Sev-
ern), overcome with the long run, was able
to go no farther and was compelled to
shoot the hog in self-defense. Hating to
waste the meat, he cut it up, and was
about to cure it when arrested" The jury
brought in verdict of guilty, where
upon counsel for the defense made a mo-
ton for a new treal, upon the ground that
the verdict was contrary to the evidence.
Judge Pillars sustained the motion, re.
marking that he could well understand
how this hog, enraged to madness-as the
defence stated-might chase him this long
distance and make malicious assault
upon the defendant-as matter of fact,
this was the customary conduct of hog
and how it might be necessary to shoot the
hog in self-defense. mo one has CONTRA
dicted the defendants; no one swore that
the hog did not assault him: therefore,
his evidence is wholly uninipeached, and,
in the eyes of the law. must be taken as
true" As to the taking the meat and
caring for it, he considered that as but an
evidence of good husbandry, and upon
these grounds he would set the verdict
aside, and required the clerk to take the
prisoners own recognlzance for his ap.
pearance at the next term of court.