The morning news., 1899-11-29
JURYMEN WILL NOT TALK.
Refuse to Discuss Hypothetical Crit
icisms of Judge FaIliRant.


icisms of Judge FalIlgant.
There has been some murmuring among
the members of the grand jury of the
June term of the Superior Court, who
were discharged Monday, in regard to the
caustic hypothetical criticisms of Judge
Fallgant. as to the course of some men,
Der of that body who permitted jury Sc
crets to be waited about in less seclud-
ed atmosphere than that of the jury room
However, no member of the jury is will
ling to talk for publlcati lion, and so take
upon himself the burden of the defense
Judge Falligant did not set the blame at
the door of any single one of them, and
indeed did not say that any member
of the jury had permitted the secrets to
get abroad. On the contrary, he said he
did not believe that any member of the
jury would be guilty of the act which the
judge regarded as such a violent tram
gression of the propreties. He did not offer
to explain, though, in what manner he ac-
counted for the fact that these jury Sc
crets have come to the knowledge of the
public months before they were included
in the presentments.
1t is known, despite the reticence of the
| jurymen, that many of them do not place
the same strict construction upon the oath
taken by the members of a grand jury,
that is placed upon it by Judge Falligant.
In their opinion the oath is intended to
serve distinct purposes the protection of
witnesses and the enforcement of law, and
| is not intended to cover every discussion
| that takes place in the jury room, no
| matter what the subject may be. The po-
| sltion of these members of the grand jury
| is that if witness will be annoyed or a
| criminal escape arrest by an officer,
| through the betrayal of jury-room secrets,
| then these should be kept vigorously TO
| themselves; but if the matters discussed
are pure questions of policy or
government there is no reason,
they believe, why the oath of Sc
crecy should be taken or understood to in
clude them. In this way they excuse the
| appearance of the jury secrets on the
streets of the city, even though the Sc
crets were clothed in the somewhat uncer-
tain garments of rumor and "They say"
The Jurymen, for instance, cannot un-
derstand that of some member of COM
mittee that had investigated the condition
of public road and found il good should
disclose this fact to some one not a mem
Der of the jury, that he would thus vio-
late any real provision of his oath or in
any way affect the administration of JUS
tlce. TO them 1t seems that the keeping
or disclosure of the results of such inyes-
tigation as this Is a matter of policy. 10
be determined by the jury collectively, and
In the absence Of such concerted action
by its individual members That is the
way they regard their discussions on the
subject of gambling.
AS to the other matter of criticism from
Judge Fallgant, the alleged failure of the
jury to find indictments against certain
gamblers, for the reason that they thought
the gamblers would only be fined and that
the plan of filming gamblers had been
failure, so far as it concerned the sun
preston of the vice. the members of the
jury are still more reticent That they
hold to their conviction that fining gam
blers will not suffice, but that they ought
10 be imprisoned when convicted is evil
denced by the fact that in their present.
ment they urge it as self-evident and re-
cite the resolution passed by their body
asking the representatives in the Iegis-
lature to Introduce and urge the passage
of bill to make Imprisonment without
the privilege of paying fine, the punish
ment for gambling.
The presentments of the grand Jury and
the remarks of Judge Falligant have
stirred up the Old question anew. 1t has
brought into public notice the question Of
the fee SYSTEM, and the evident conchu-
sion that if il Is TO be continued and the
punishment for convicted gamblers made
Imprisonment. without fines, that some
other and additional method will have to
be devised for the payment of the officers
of the court.