People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1895-10-03
Rarney lO,Connor is GUILTY..

point yesterday forenoon wien
County Attorney Woods offered to
introduce in evidence the liquors
which had been seized upOn the
search and seizure clause of the
warrant. He cont tended that the pro-
vision of the United States cOnstitu
tiOn which provides that no man shall
be compelled to testify against him
self in criminal case prohibits the
use of the defendants property as
evidence against him. He cited tive
decisions Of the United States SUI
preme court to uphold his contention
and made an able argument upon the
questions involved. Judge Burnette
was 10 seriOns doubt about the queS
tiOR and as all the witnesses present
had been examined, court was ad-
jOurned early yesterday afternoon un-
til this morning. In the meantime
the Judge looked up the matter and
this morning'Overruled Mr. Lawrence's
objections and three cases of beer, a
a number of jugs of liquors, the de.
canters, glasses etc. went before the
jury.
The State closed its evidence about
ten o'clock this morning and upon
the demand Of the defendant elected
10 rely for a conviction upon the first
count upon the sale to Geo. Scarth
and Moses Swaggart and asked to dis.
miss the End, Bird, 4th, 9Th. 9Th and 7th
counts. Mr.. Lawrence objected to a
dismissal Of these counts and asked
that the jury be instructed to briug
in verdict of not guilty upon these
six counts.
County Attorney Woods was the
only witness the defendant called.
He testified that he was not certain
whether or not he knew anything
about the sale to Scarth and Swaggart
at the time he filed the information.
Later on he concluded that he did
not and so informed the court. Con-
Sequently the court instructed the
jury to find the defendant not guilty
the first seven counts. This left
only the nuisance count.
The jury got the case this after
noon and after being out only short
time returned with verdict of guilty
in the nuisance court.
While the final results of this case
are not all that the law abiding and
wv loving people hoped for, yet they
valuable in showing that Sumner
Unity jurors Will convict men for
Cling Whiskey just as readily as for
any other offeDSe if the evidence Jus.
titles it. The time has passed in
Sumner county, (if it ever existed.
when it can be said that juries will
] hot convict under the prohiDitOry
law, no matter what the evidence
may be.
One other obstacle to these prosecu-
cutiOns still exists, however, and
\ that is with the witnesses. We
heard only a small portion of the
levidence in this case. But from
what we did hear personally and
from what we learned from those
who heard the rest of it, we are salts.
fled that if that batch of witnesses
had not wanted to clear Barney
OCOnnOr, enough sales would have
been proven by them to establish
every count three or four times. We
do not believe that any man on that
jury, or any man who was in the court
room during the trial entertains the
least doubt that if the witnesses who
were on the stand had wanted to re-
member all they could, or if they had
sworn to all that they really did
remember that Barney O'Connor
would have been convicted good and
hard on each and every count in the
information.
And in our opinion the time has
come when decided stop should be
put to this sort of thing. A half dcz-
en- vigorous prosecutions for perjury
in such cases would, in our opinion.
have very statutory effect, even
If they should not be successful; the |
county could well afford to pay the
costs for the moral effect such prose- !
cutiOns would have. The Mail |
stands fairly and sQuarely for the OBJ
servance and enforcement of all laws
and the prohibition law just the same
as any other law. We want to see |
the day come speedily when a man
will be arrested, tried, convicted and |
punished just as surely and as speedi-
ly for violation of the law against
selling whiSkey as for theft or arson.
And we believe the county attorney
would be fully justified in resortiag
to extraordinary methods ito bring
about this condition of affairs, and in
any effort to do so he will have the
hearty support and cooperation of
the Nail and of its editor.-Mail, Sat
urday.