The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1894-05-15
THE TRIAL BY NEWSPAPER.

When any man ia arrested upon q
charge involving either bis life or his
personal liberty he is entitled to the
benefit of the doubt as to his guilt until
q jury determines his guilt or innocence.
This hardly applies to such cases ss the
brutal murder of Cashier Hsrrick by
the professional criminal Fredericks,
which noted advocate in San Francisco
pronounced mot a case for law but one
for lynching." But in q general way,
when a man who has hitherto borne q
good reputation is arrested and charged
with a crime be should be entitled to
suspension of public opinion until the
verdict OF jury either convicts or abb
solves him.
We notice, OF late, too much of a dis
position on the part OF newspapers in
general to usurp the functions OF the
courts in matters of this sort. The diff
dculty of obtaining honest and compe-
tent jurors in impo rtant cases arises
largely from the fact that the newspa-
pers have so argued those cases as to
leave NO room for doubt. The conse-
jurors are set aside as having formed an
opinion and the defense readily accepts
mercenary men who can be easily
utilized for aCquttal, and who stand up
and solemnly swear that they have
formed no opinion whatever in the
premises. All this is bad for the COM
munlty in general.
Take case in point, for instance:
The Examiner, nearly two years ago.
when Richard Heath was arrested at
Fresno for the murder OF Louis Nc
Whittier, undertook to try the case in
advance of the courts and scquit the
prisoner. For this purpose it advanced
the theory of suicide. As McWhirter's
life was insured for $780, 900, and as all
the money for Heath's defense was fur
nished by the insurance companies, it ie
quite probable that those insurance
agents thought it necessary to influence
the press as well as employ attorneys.
The Heath Gaze is the only one in
which the paper alluded to has labored
for an acquittsl. Since that time it's
labors have been exerted in the direc-
ton of conviction. The first of these is
the case of school teacher named SAM
ders, q forty-years' resident of the coast,
whose former pupils are to be found
among the leading business men in every
county from Siskiyou to Kern. A man
named Wootton disappeared mysteri-
ously from Fresno county, and the
school teacher has been arrested for the
crime. OF course, there can be no smoke
without fire, but it would be just as we'll
for the community if Sanders were tried
in the courts first and the newspapers
On the contrary. the Ex-
aminer has already tried and convicted
Sanders; and the only things now lack
ing are the rope, the black cap and the
parson.
About a week ago q man named
George Decker was arrested at his home
in Shasta valley. near Yreka, on
charge of having murdered his wife and
two children in 1867. That ia long
while ago and, as there have been
great many irst-class funerals in Siski-
you county since that period, the diff.
Guilty of procuring conviction of Decker
will be apparent to anyone who knows
anything about murder trials or is at all
familiar with the nomadic habits OF the
earlier settlers of Northern California.
At all events, the injustice of trying and
newspaper must be apparent to every
body in the state. The upshot will be
that Decker's counsel will exhaust about
three panels of jurors and then apply
for change of venue, on account OF in
ability to obtain fair and impartial
trial. The court will grant it and the
case will go to some other county where
Decker will be acouitted without the
jury leaving their seats.
This is all bad business, and the worse
because it is foreign to the mission of
the press. The press is supposed to be
run as the exponent OF truth. The
newspapers are quite as necessary to the
best interests OF the people 90 are the
courts or the lawyers, but in wholly
different way. Each has its own proper
sphere and the bench cannot usurp the
functions of the press or vice versa
without injury to the cause of justice.
Let us venture to hope that the trials
of accused persons by the newspapers
in future, will be "a custom more hon
ored in the breach than the observance"