New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-03-16
NEW-OPLEINS JUSTICE.

Il
The mole the New-OrleanS murders arc in
yestigated. the worse the whole transaction APP
pears. II comes to this, that in such com
munity no mans life is safe. if any personal
enemy can contlivc to excite Il popular belief
that he is guilty. The very violence OF assertion
and vituperdtion by the leaders o! the mob goes
| far to create the impression that their own hhoS
were not free from doubt. This IS particularly
true in regard to the alleged bribery OF the Jury
| If any evidence exists that such Il Cilmc was
committed that evidence has not yet been trans
mited by telegraph, and ii was carefully sup
pressed by the speakers who addressed the mob.
True. in order to make the murder OF the
SicllanS appear necessary to the publIc saic'E'
the speakers had inst 70 assume that the juI!
had not rendered IN honest verdict. and the pup
lie conviction that the verdict was not honest
seems t. be general and strong. Bat 1t Is
not possible TO forget how commercial bodies ana
even churches of Ncw-OrlcanS once upheld ana
justified the massacre of political convention.
The people VINO then excused the most ma
nous of al crimes in passionate partiSanShlp. are
not to be rcctonca absolutely unoring and IN
ialiible in their judgment when they decIare
that the jury was bnbed
l. has been said already that the slaughter
of the persons accused in this case was none the
less murder. though perpeudtcd by .afge BODY
Of citizens. There were peculiar reasons Tor en-
erc;sing much caution in judging and dealing
with the Sicilans. There had been t0r months
state Of popular feeling which peculiarly dis
qualified men for weighing evidence. The papers
and the people demanded victim, many victims
because Chief l!cnneSsH had been foully muir
dered and the excitement was such that men
had ceased - ask themselves >ObcIly ana
candidly the question whether the participation
Of this or that individual in that murder was cS-
tab!isheG by evidence. 1'ria! ~ newspaper Is moi
alwa, trustworthy and trial by popular oulcl!
is ant 10 be even less uneuing. The Tact was
known that there had been bitter 1cuds between
different sets or factions Of Italians and the long
and bloody vendetta which the Chief of Police
endeavoicd to break up implied that there we've
other Italians a. desperate and full Of haired as
those who killed him. Ii is not at all incon-
cpivablc that the evidence may have been manu-
featured or distorted by personal enemies OF the
accused. and that possibility should have rem
deled the community exceedingly careful IN
Judgment lest some who were actually innocent
should be condemned with the guilty. But Of
such care there seems TO have been remarkably
little.
The leputed leader OF aSsaSSinS was a man
who had taken an active part, at least on one
| occasion, in tIamp!lng upon the law under pre-
| text Of serving the public. lie was captain OF u
| company OF the White League. who revoitcd
against and overturned by violence the Repub-
| lean Government OF Louisiana. The same law
lessness which he then helped 10 make supreme
| in that State has now cost him his Eie. ms
man, Machnca was unanimousy acquitted by the
| iuly though a. 70 several other persons the
Jurors stood nine for conviction and three Tor
acouttal and dispatches Cl0u,ly STATE thai the
nine Jurors were suspicious that the other three
had been bribcd lct those who suspected and
these who were suspected all voted to acqut the
person found guilty by newspapers and the mob
Of being the leader OF the a>SasSnS, and the
people OF NeW-OreanS are at present declaring
that il is better to have mob assembled III the
street TO decide regarding the guilt or lnnp-
cence of man accused without hearing any evil
dence whatever, than to rely upon the decision
| of jurors who face the witnesses and hear the
testimony.