Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-08-10
BURDEN IS ON THE STATE.
Government Must Prove That Dreyfus
Is Guilty.

New York, Aug. S.-The Paris CORE
spondent of the Tribune, discussing
the questions on which the Dreyfus
court-martial, which began yesterday,
hinges, says:
One of the consequences of the judg-
ment delivered by the court of cassa-
tion June has been to shift the bur-
den of proof from the prisoner to the
prosecution. At the court-martial of
1894 il was incumbent upon Captain
Dreyfns to prove that he was innocent
of the charges brought against him.
This was in accordance with French
law, which places the burden of proof
upon the accused But at the Rennes
Icourt-martial Captain Dreyfus will APP
gally condemned and will not be oblig+
for the prosecution to prove that he
is guilty. The issue relegated by the
court of cessation to the Rennes court
martial for trial is narrowed down by
:he SINGLE question whether or not
Captain Dr@yfus. communicated to a
foreign power the precise documents
enumerated in the bordereau. The
borderean is the memorandum, with
out DAFT or signature, written on
very peculiar water marked tissue Pc
per, which, upon the evidence of the
late Colonel Henry, the forger, was dis
covered torn in slips in the waste bas-
ket of Col. Won Schwnrtzlioppen, then
military attache at the German en-
bassy in Paris, and after being put to-
gether by Col. Henry formed the ba-
sis of the original charge against Cap
tain Dreyfus. There is nothing in the
bordereau to show that Captain Drey-
fus had been following reasonable
practices. or to connect him in any
manner with it, beyond an alleged sim
ilarity between the handwriting of
Dreyfus and that of the author of the
bordereau. The court of cessation has
decided that the bordereau was writ
ten by Esterhazy and not by. Drey-
fus.
The court of cessation has already
passed Judgment upon all the other
evidence adduced against Dreyfus in
1894, including the confession Of guilt
falsey alleged to have been made by
Dreyfus in January, 1895, to Captain
Northumberland and to Sergeant De-
pert, as well as the famous secret dos
sier, with its forgeries and criminally
manipulated documents. All that is
legally left standing after the elimina-
ton by the court of cessation of the
irregularities that vitiated the convic-
| ton of 1894 is the bordereau, which
the court of cassation, on June 3, de-
clared was not written by Dreyfus.
The functions of the Rennes court
martial are now limited to hearing
evidence and deciding upon the sub
iect of the alleged communication by
Captain Dreyfus to a foreign power OF
| the documents enumerated in the bor-
ten by Esterhazy, as he himself has
with Esterhazy when the bordereau
was written, and it is safe to predict
that it will be practically impossible
for the prosecution to prove at Rennes
that Captain Dreyfus handed over to q
foreign power the documents in ques-
ton.
In the report of President Ballot
Beaupre, the conclusions of which
We're adopted by the court of cessation
a portion of the record of the court
martial OF 1894 is cited, from which ii
anpears that on November 81, 1894
Commandant d'Ormescheville (the Off.
Ger who framed the Indictment upon
which Dreyfus was convicted) showed
Dreyfus the original of the bordereau
Dreyfus resolutely denied ever having
seen the document before, and ex.
|plained in detail why it was material.
ly impossible that he could have writ.
Item it.
If the prosecution succeeds in PROV.