The Green Forest tribune., 1901-01-12
BRAND JURY SYSTEM.
Dan W. Jones Expre|ed
 Himself as Against It.

Sometimes I feel as I w4lld
 ito turn loose half of the err
 snow confined in the Arl kn-
 penitentiary."
 'hus spoke Gov. Dan w. Jsnes
 Jew days ago in conversion
 joon the question of pardons. ag 1.-The first and greatest neet of I le state,' he continued,ss isthe > Mailing of a constitutional con- ..vention to thoroughly revisel the
 present constitution, which Twas
 outgrown by our progressive ltate
 years ago. I have recommet ded
 this to both legislatures to VI 'lich
 l have sent messages, but h fdly
 hope to live to see the day Then
 this will become 8 reality, and
 we will really have a consti+1 ton
 which is in line with that ofJ ther
 states of the union.
 First, the grand jury s{ stem
 is all wrong and one readinE so
 many petitions for pardons1 Rs I
 do would realize that fact n g.
 very short time. Take our;b bres-
 ent law. How is the thing fpne? A man is arrested charged Iwith some offense against the laws of the state, say grand larceny. The officers are very dilig.ht in gathering information against their prisoner to submit td the grand jury, but nearly every time tfe other side of the case il left to be brought out at the trial after the indictment is returned by the grand jury. If tha man ais poor and ignorant and does 2not secure a lawyer to look after &his case, in nearly every case he Twill be convicted when he may no Nnore be guilty than one of the men who returned the indictment. The prosecuting attorney gathers Ssuch information as will serve to gconvict, and this is all that is sllss7a4a \ ss7a4a1 before the jury. U Of course FbAre are a great many prosecut- VsAg attorneys who are just as Higent in securing evidence in favor of the prisoner, but. unhap- fly, there are more who are not.
 '"The grand jury hears the testimony of the witnesses for the state summoned before them at the instance of the prosecuting attorney. An indictment is re- turned charging the prisoner with grand larceny and then his case comes before the circuit court for determinations to his real guilt, when the grand jury shas said that he is guilty.
 sIt isstoo often the case that an Iindictment is equivalent to a con- Iviction and I have cases come be- fore me quite often in which the prisoner upon being indicted was scared that he would meet heavy punishment if he let his case go before the petit jury, so he enters a plea of guilty at somebody's suggestion and throws himself on the mercy of the court and is sen fenced, when if he had not be- come frightened and let his case go to trial his lawyer would have Introduced evidence that would have acquitted him.
 < ''Even if he is acquitted there Rs the stigma of an indictment Hanging over him all his life and Tt is 8 kind of a disgrace that can not be shaken off.
 'sHow much better would it be to abolish the grand jury system and make the prosecuting attor- ney responsible for all cases brought before the court. There would not be so many innocent l men arrested. for you know very well that this prosecuting attor- ney is going, to be very careful as to whom he files information against. For if he acted in a spirit of revenge in any case the next thing to happen would be that his head would be probably blown off by a shotgun in the hands of the offended party.
 Then the circuit judge should have the authority to parol con- N sfict, d1lrino oc n.nnd hnh auinr q e in