The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-07-10
The Press and the Courts.

Inc New ! 0rk J0Ui7tGt Or CONthleTrt, ,
wisely conservative journal, which
never loses its balance. thus critic;Se>
the verdict in the Mellow trial:
When in the proper judicial spirit the
press tears the mask from hypocrisy,
sweeps aside the plausible sophiStrieS
which willy advocates have spun over the
face of crime to conceal or palliate It's
guilt, and dareS tc hold the criminal up
to the shame he richly deserves, it is
doing noble work IN the interest of
truth and justice.
We regret to say that some of the
papers in this country seem TO be in
such fear that they shall not duly mag
Nifty their vocation in this respect, that
they substitute their own Judgment of
matters that have been, as far as all ap-
pearance goes, fairly tried by the courts,
both for the opinion of the Judge and
the verdict of the jury. a case in point
is that of Mellow, recently acquitted at
Charleston, OF the charge of murder.
There is no evidence whatever that the
trial was not fairly conducted. The de
fendant admitted the killing Of Dawson,
but claimed that he fired the fatal shot
in self-defense. He did not shine in
court as a man of unblemiShed moral
character. With a lovely wife at his
home, he pursued with unwarranted gal
lantries a handsome Swiss domestic in
the family of Dawson. The latter heard
of it and went to McDoW'S office to call
him to account for bis conduct. In the
alteration that enSued the visitor was
killed. The slayer was indicted and the
trial has just been concluded, his plea of
Self-defenSe having been sustained by
the verdict.
During the progress Of the trial many
7 Of TlG papers cc0r11lGGTGU upon Il viii
evident unfairness, and since its Close
have been raging over the result as {
gross miscarriage Of justice. We cal
see no excuse whatever for Sdch an out
break of temper. If there had been {
strong popular feeling in favor Of the
accused, it might be said that the out
side pressure had forced the jury to de-
eide against their own honest convic
tons. But as far as popular clamol
went, both in Charleston and elsewhere,
the force of pressure was in the other
direction. 1t is said that the prosecution
was weak in presenting the case, but as
it was assisted by the most eminent
counsellorS of a bar second to none il
the country, this, if true, was undoubt
edly due to the inherent weakness Of all
that the authorities could gather in
favor of conviction rather than any ne
glect of duty by the government officials.
Quite a number of the papers which
have been fercest in their clamor fol
McDow,s condemnation now insist that
Justice miscarried IN the trial solely
through "race prejudicein the jury box. =
If the jury had been all white or all
colored this plea could not be so abso-
lutely disproved as to stop the mouths
of its advocates, but when it is known
that of the twelve men five were white
and seven were black, we do not sec
where the race" prejudice comes in
| force. Besides, it is claimed that the
negroes were in favor of the criminal,
and the mere statement OF this Is enough
to condemn the charge If the whites
had been prejudiced in favor of Mellow,
and had demanded his acquittal, it
would have been urged that they CO.
creed the negroes to agree to that YER
diet. But we do not think the seven
negroes could have won five white men
to render with them a unanimous YER
dict of acquittal after less than two
hours consultation in the jury room if
the latter had not conscientiously con-
Cured in its justice. We think that
this is a case which may be safely left
to the judgment of the court in which
il was tried. and that the extra newSpa-
per tribunal is wholly out Of place.