The Forrest City times., 1892-04-22
NOT GUILTY

We. the jury, find the defendant not guilty was the verdict of the jury in the Woodruff case brought in at five minutes to II o'clock this morning. Not guilty of enbezzling the funds of the state; mot guilty Of converting to his own use and that of his friends more than a hundred thousand dollars of public money. Thus ends the case. But who believes that this 1 jury rendered a verdict in accordance with the facts in the case? Who believes that William E. Woodruff is innocent of the charges made against him? Who that has read the testimony in the case does not 1 believe that he converted to his own use | thousands of dollars of the money collected 1 from the tax payers Of Arkansas? Perhaps | it is true, as he claims, that he did what ninety-nire men out of hundred similarly l situated would have done. Perhaps the pressure from the outside was so great | that large majority of men would have | yielded But this does not alter the facts | in the ease. It does not make the conver- sion Of public money less crime.
 The verdict is an outrage upon justice and common honesty. This the Democrat | feels constrained to say with no personal | feeling in the case, but in the interest of truth and right and common honesty Little Rock Democrat.
 Our dear Brother Mitchell appears to desire Woodruff's conviction regard less of his guilt or innocence. TIE TIMES is not defender of any guilty person, and it desires to see justice done though the heavens fall. In reading the evidence adduced before the court, the Democrat must have been blinded by prejudice. It's anxiety lest some of the opprobium of Mir. Woodruff's alleged steaIings should fall upon the Democratic party has caused our usually clearheaded con temporary to condemn where condem- nation could only have been reached by clear and severe straining of the testimony and.the law. The Demo- crat has never done Mir. Woodruff jus tice. It has-whether Intentionally or not it alone can say-persistently ig- nored certain facts which, we are sure, influenced the jury in their verdict. In the vaults of the state treasury there are redeemed coupons of the 6 per cent funding bonds which aggre- grate Sl,300,0O0. Of this amount MT. Woodruff stands credited with $690,- 0o0, leaving balance not accounted for of s6l0,00O. These coupons were evidently redeemed. The fact that they are there shows that. Who re- deemed them? It took dollar for dol lar of the states money to redeem them. If not, whose money did re- deem them ? If the states money did not do it, how came them in the pos sesion of the treasurer They are there-that is certain. Mr. Woodruff paid out the states funds for the re- demption of these coupons and has not received credit for S6l0,OOO thus dis bursed. That is patent. The trouble has been the lack of expert-or even careful-book-keeping in tue treasur- er's office. As these coupons were re- deemed they should have been sched- uled to tlie auditor for proper entry against the treasurer's office, but through pure neglect or ignorance this was not done.
 There are two ways of getting credit | for these coupons. One is by certifi- cate from the burning board, showing the coupons have been destroyed
 This certificate is credited by the audi
 ter as so much cash. MT. Woodruff had no such certificate, but he had the coupons. Carelessness again, we will admit. Another way for the treasurer to get credit for these coupons is a re- ceipt from his successor in office. MT.
 Woodruff had no such receipt, but he had the coupons. When General Churchill went out of office he received a receipt from MT. Woodruff for s79,- 600 of these coupons.
 Now, how came these coupons there if MT. Woodruff did not redeem them? We admit that Mir. Woodruff is very much to blame, principally because of his failure to employ competent help, but we do not, most emphatically, be- lieye him thief. There is not an ex- pert-not even professional-book- keeper in the office of either the treas urer or auditor. Experts were en- ployed on this case, however, but they failed ingloriously to untangle the wretched work of the men who had been keeping the books, and at the suggestion of Governor Eagle, who was finally selected to untangle the matter, the case will be settled in chancery.
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