El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-01-14

Judge Harris, of Fort Worth, IN his
charge to the grand jury, said much
that is usual. That must of necessity
be so. for he said. "he was required by
law To give the grand jury in charge of
all of the laws of the STATE, - particular
ly, he said, in referring to certain kinds
of law violation. 81 recognize in
business three classes. One observes
the laws ard cares to do nothing than
that permitted by law. OF this class l
may say their business is strictly legal.
There is another class who do a leg al
business, but do it in part beyond what
the law permits, and thus do illegal
things: that is, they DO legal business
in part in an illegal way. From the
sake of gain, from force of habit of
from the love of transgressing a little
on the law, they press their business
beyond the confines of the legal sphere
There is another class Il reckon they
call their occupations their business)
whose business is wholly Illegal. Thus
business is detrimental to public in
terestS, and they are class of people
who go into business illegal, wrong
and against the genius and letter OF the
law. 1t is the right of every man who
respects the law and conducts his bust
ness legally to have this same respect
for law exacted of all other classes, if
they do not have it to the degree that
makes them conform to the laws OF the
land. 1t is their right to have all
business people engage only in business
that is legal, for we do not want any
| special or privileged classes.
1T is the duty of the grand juryl to
stop the second class from doing their
| business in an Illegal way. 1t is our
duty t. see that the business of the
third classsis stopped entirely, for it is
entirely without warrant of law. The
moral effect of this permitted or con
nived at violation of law that is doing
an illegal business. is very bad, for it
| leads 10 so general disregard for law
| that all the laws are violated. There is
only one safe rule. Permit no violation
of law"
He cautioned the grand jury against
finding bills unless beyond a reasonable
doubt there was the evidence to con-
Wet. This led the Judge to brief dis
Sertation on the Oft-made complaints
of the failure or miscarriage of justice
in criminal cases, for which the mach
inery OF courts was much blamed. He
argued, and this opinion was based on
| years of experience in Tarrant county,
| that there was one part of the machin
| cry of the courts much at fault, anC
that was the petit juries. He had one
say to him, man in whose judgment
ard observation he had much conf
dence, that he had known Of cases
where, from hearing the evidence il
| the court or from reading it in the pub
lie prints, d citizen would say the &C
cused is guilty and should be punished
but as soon as this same citizen got in
to the jury-bOX he became as badly aft
ected with reasonable dou BITS" as sc
many petit jurymen have been in the
past. Continuing on this subject
| Judge Harris said:
81 am led to this conclusion, thai
where the higher grade of felonies are
| concerned, the presum ptiOn of limo
cence and reasonable doubts of guilty
OF the average petit juryman are strong
and much above par. The fact thai
the average petit Juryman has such
strong reasonable doubts" is no rea
son why you should fail to do your duty
and indict if you think the evidence
warrants it,