Morning journal and courier., 1894-04-23
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL
II PURLIsHxD
EVERY THURSDAY MORNING.
Single Copies 8 cents.

NOT LIKE THE REGISTER COURT
In the fulness of It's contempt for the
Superior court and In the heartiness of iti
defense of DR.. Lee the Register has over
looked few little things like the Constitu
tion of the State of Connecticut and the
General Statutes. OF course such trifes
will not need to be thought of when the
Registers infallible court gets into full
working order, but until that longed. fol-
day comes the sworn officers of the law
will, we suppose, have to pay little atten-
ton to them.
The way DR.. Lees second trial came
about and was conducted shows the great
inferiority of the legal procedure In
such cases to what Register procedure
would be. It will not, perhaps, be wholly
improbable to notice what a care
full and cumbersome performance IT
was. A woman died because somebody
had committed a crime. DR.. Lee was In
the immediate nsighborhood of the crime.
Suspicion fell upon him, and among those
who had 1t were members of the family
and physicians who knew the situation.
The coroner was notified. He made a
thorough examination of the matter and
became Satisfied that there was good res-
son for suspicion of DR.. Lse. The evil
dence was brought to the attention of the
assistant city attorney. he came to the
same conclusion that the coroner did, and
ordered the arrest of the doctor. He was
bound over by the City court to the Su-
perior court. The State attorney took the
evidence and laid 1t before the grand jury.
And as the Register seems to have for
gotten that there Is grand jury which
takes solemn oath to do its duty, and as
1t has ascribed to the State attorney all the
powers and the responsibility of that i'm
portant factor in the prosecution of crimi-
malls, we will give the names and residences
of the eighteen members of the grand jury
which considered the evidence against DR..
Lee sufficient to warrant his Indictment
and trial. They are: Andrew B. Brown,
Waterbury,; George F. Pardee, Cheshire;
Henry T. Holcomb, Cheshire; Emery l..
Terrell, Beacon Falls; Rodney Robinson,
Oxford; Horatio N. Lane, North Guilford; /;
William e. Kimball, Prospect; D. P.
Hotchkiss, Prospect; William B. Brother
ton, Milford; William n. Wakelee, South
bury; Henry n. Canfield, South Britain;
Arthur W. Harrison, Wolcott; William E.
Pritchard, Wolcott; Robert Payne, Wood
bridge; Frank L. Doolittle, Woodbridge,
Dennis A. Kimberly, Orange; John T.
Baskam. Middlebury; W. 81. Dibble, Mid
dlebury. These gentlemen are credited
with fair judgment and discretion by those
among whom they live, but we believe they
are not all Masters of Arts.
So the prosecution of DR.. Lee was not
the simple affair that prosecution by the
the State attorney alone would be. The
steps in II were: Suspicion and complaint
to the coroner; examination and report by
him; complaint and warrant by the as.
sistant city attorney; formal binding ovel
by the city court; presentation of the evi
dencs to the grand jury; indictment by
that body; and finally, effort by the State
attorney and his assistant to place the
facts on which the Indictment was based
before the jury. All who took part in thes'
steps were satisfied that there was gooi
case. But they made the vital mistake o.
not consulting the Masters of Art
of the Register. Had they done 81
they would all have been abl
to see how wrong they were and to forese
just what the jury would do. During tn
short period between now and the tim
when the Constitution of the State and tn
General Statutes will be changed by tn
Register and the Register court be full.
established 1t will clearly be the duty of al
complsinants, ooroners, prosecuting attor
neys, grand jurors and others concerned Il
| the prosecution of criminals to make sur
l that they are right before they go ahead b.
consulting the aforesaid Masters of arts
"When tho heavens rain gold see that tn
skirts of thy garments be spread" say th
Spaniards. And when the benefits of ON
Iisciencs and sure prescisnce are to bs ha
for the asking, 1t behooves those who nee
them as much as prosecutors of criminal
do to ask for them.