St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-07

testimony, except In such parts as he
may be corroborated by valid and true
testimony which you believe Various
rules! wonderful; beautiful; preserved -
preserved by the courts-are constant
ly handed down to juries; necessarily
given to juries; not to be listened to
and disobeyed, but to be listened to and
to be acted upon as the conserving
powers of best manhood, best judg-
ment, to arrive at a true verdict in a
given case.
Now, ordinarily, these things should
not be spoken of. Ordinarily these
things are presumed, and are not mar
rated to juries. But 1 hold it to be
doubly important that in this case they
be brought prominently into view, in
order that you may understand gen
tlemen of the jury, what the law de-
mands of you as jurors, as we'll as to
understand that which mercy, fairness
and fair play demands of you as men;
that with these lights about you, you
may begin to deliberate, investigate
and criticise the evidence in this case.
Therefore, gentlemen of the jury,
ask you when you come to hear the
courts charge, do not think that the
court is about to give you any indica-
tion Of the facts in the case; that is
not the courts province, and he would
not for the world give you any indica-
tion of how ne feels upon the facts in
this case. And if he thought YOU
would decide this case and render a
verdict upon how he felt or upon how
the county attorney felt, or upon how
felt, he would set it aside. You look up
to him, act from him, take it and keep
it from him, and not from me-but
from him the rules of law. They
are your best protection; they are the
best protection of these people; they
are the best protection of this defend
ant They are the old, the tried rules
of the best men, in the best ages of
the world. These rules are various.
They are given to you rapidly-they
are generally read from a written
charge, and you have to pay rapt and
strict attention to them in order to
get them in their fullness and in their
power.
Among these rules which l think the
court will give you, is a rule of law
which you must not lose sight of in
this case and that is, in a court of
law fraud is never presumed. Juries
are not at liberty to presume fraud;
but fraud must be proved before it
can be made link in the chain to take
the life of man.
Another rule is, that you cannot sup
ply defects in evidence by probabili-
ties; you cannot presume payments in
the absence of proof of payments. You
cannot presume loans or returns of
money in the absence of proof of a
loan or a return of money. You are
here to try this case on the evidence;
you are not at liberty to go beyond it,
but you are to criticise it, to weigh it,
to judge 1.-THE evidence, not the man.
And your verdict, when it is found,
is simply this-either that the charge
in the indictment is proven to your
satisfaction, beyond a reasonable
doubt, by the evidence, or your verdict
of not guilty. simply that the evidence
does not and has failed to prove to
your satisfaction, beyond all reason
able doubt, the guilt of this defendant.
The Indictment is a mere accusation
found by the grand jury. 1t has no.
weight here; there is no presumption
arising from it, it is merely an accusa-
ton. And that the defendant shall not
be prejudiced because he is accused
the law has laid around him. and now
holdS before him, the presumption of
innocence until in the honest Judgment
of the souls and minds of twelve men.
no one single mind dissenting, he is
proved guilty beyond all reasonable
doubt. Then the presumption of the
law falls, for then he is in contempla-
ton of our laws a guilty man; not
until then.
These are the rules and practices of
our fathers. These are the safeguards
of our liberty. These are the dearest
elements Of our constitution. These
are what we have priced since we be-
gan to follow the light and teachings
of the Divine Son of God
Now, gentlemen, what position do I
nave here, or the county attorney?
Understand fairly now what our posi-
uons are. We are sent here by the
state; he upon the accusing side repre-
senting the states power upon the
states side, and commissioned by the
state to represent the state upon the
defending side, under the august COM
mission to represent the state upon the
defending SIDE what for? First, to aid
the learned and honorable court in the
preparation and bringing in and the
examination Of the witnesses, and the
testimony put before you; to do that
under his direction, submitting always
to his judgment, yielding our personal
opinion as lawyers in absolute fidelity
to the law announced from the bench.
Next, we are here to aid the jury, not
to confuse them. We are here com
missfoned to aid you, not to blind YOU