The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-10
CoRBETT,s INDICTMENT.

The action of the grand jury in indict-
ing the man Corbett for murder will oc-
casion some surprise. Whether that sur
prise is well or i'll founded it will exist,
and many persons will believe that an in
justice has been done
1t would have pleased the lob had
the grand jury found it possible to re-
fuse to indict the accused. But on It's
face its action seems entirely consistent
and reasonable. Had the statement
made by Corbett and bis companions.
that the shot was fired in self defense.
been the explanation originally given it
probably would have been adequate to
secure the exoneratton Of the accused.
Rut such is not the fact The first state
ment made was That the gun of the dead
mans son was accidentally discharged,
and that the killing resulted accordingly.
The two statements are utterly irrecon-
cileable, and either one or the other, or
both of them are false
The fact that the coroner's Jury de-
clared that Corhett acted in sell defensa
cuts no figure. Their action is not in the
case at all. 1t simply helps to throw adj
o1tional light on the palpable absurdity
of irhpaneling corener's jury in such
case, if, indeed, it does not help TO sus-
tain the contention of the great ma
jordty of persons who know anything at
all about legal procedure, that the Of
fee of coroner should be abolished.
There has been 10 such investigation of
the facts OF this case as would suffice to
enable the public to reach a satisfactory
conclusion as to the cause of Mrozinski's
death. Such an investigation should be
had; and it does not seem possible under
the circumstances TO secure it in any
other way than by trial of the accused
man. If he is innocent, he can Certainly
establish his iTnocence He has wit
nesses enough to sustain his contention
of self defense. if it is we'll founded
Assistant Attorney Zolfman iii discus
sing the foolish action of the coroner's
jury, recently, in an interview said a
good many things which were distfn-
gufshed by good sense. He went, how
ever, as it appears to the G lobe, sone
what beyord an accurate exposition Ct
the law of justifiable homicide in dis
cuss1nS the contentious of the friends
OF Corbett. If it Is in Corbetts power to
establish that the Oil poacher-for that
he appears to have been By choice and
professfon-did so in search of his on,
when he discovered that his nets had
been removed, and did, on securing it
row with his son to the launch occupied
by the gameSeepers, and did, as claimed
by Stubbs, the owner OF the gasoline
launch. run his boat across tie bow of
the launch, and did, standing in the bot
tom of his boat. raise his gun to his
shoulder and aim it at the occupants Of
the boat or any Of them, no jury that
ever was inpanelled, which was not
wholly Invested OF common sense wou,d
hesitate to declare Ids killing by one of
the occupants OF the boat as entirely
JuSlfIaDie.
If Mr.. Zollinan contends otherwise ana
concurred in the indictment Oh any such
theory of criminality on the part of Cor
bett, We believe he will find before long
that neither the court nor the Jury which
hears the evidence in this case viii agree
with him in his conclusions from such a
state of facts
Whatever may be the actual cireum-
stances attending the death of the man
for whose murder corhett is indicted, the
action of the grand jury Is under all
circumstances entitled to the public ap-
prevail. The G o be, however, does rot
hesitate to say that it hopes and be-
heves that Corbctt Will be able 10 es-
{1If s.-l-