The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-04-13
FEDERAL JURY
IS At WORK
Imprisonment for
Bark Hesper
Witnesses.
JURORS REPORT
ON PRISONS
investigations Cause Them to Crit.
icize Methods of OBTAINING
American Witnesses.

a number of witnesses whose testi-
mony is of Importance in the cases
of the United States against Frank O..
Sodergren and Nelson Stuart, charged
with assault upon the high seas. have
been imprisoned by order of the United
States District Court, to prevent their
leaving the Territory before the trial
Iof said cases.
The Grand Jury yesterday Investigate
ed the matter and it reports as follows:
The United States Grand Jury in
session beg leave to call the attention
Iof the Honorable Court to the method
employed by the United States Marshal
for the detention of witnesses, and
Iother persons pending their examina
ton n this Court
Your jury upon careful examination
find shat at the present time the method
Ienployed TO secure the presence of the
witnesses and other persons who may
be required in the United States court
and may be unable to provide bonds for
their appearance, is to commit them to
the care Of the High Sheriff of the Ter
ritorY, who places them in the Terri
torfal penitentiary, under the same con-
ditions and regulations as the prisoners.
Your Grand Jury are instructed that
1 this is a violation of United States law
! governing the detention of witnesses
| and persons held for appearance in
Shn he ja-
tanned in a Jail and not penitentiary.
Your jury find that the persons held
to appear in this United States Court
are treated While in prison the same
as those under sentence for the worst
of crimes excepting only that they are
not put TO hard labor) they are obliged
to submit to the same prison regula
tons and fare, and from the evidence
iof many witnesses and from a sample
breakfast produced before your jury, we
find that the rations supplied to the
prisoners are not of such quantity or
quality as these men are entitled to at
the hands CT those who hold them in
confinement for no fault of their own.
Your jury feel that to place these per-
sons under the same rigorous discipline
as that adopted for convicts to require
\
for the worst of crimes, TO give these
persons no favors not granted to con-
victs, is an outrage upon the right of
innocent American citizens and should
not be permitted by any United States
authority. We cannot hold any United
States officer as free from censure who
permits this condition to exist without
making some effort to remedy the
wrong and much more is such officer
censurable who admits that he does not
know where these persons are detained
or what treatment they are receiving
! from the hands of those to whom he
has committed them.
We do not regard the plea that the
prison is as good or better than the
Station House or Jail, as bearing upon
| this evil If a Territorial jail is not of
sufficient size or has not the proper
accommodations for the persons who
must be detained by the United States
authorities pending their appearance in
Court, then proper place should be
provided for these men who have COM
mitted no crime. They are perhaps the
unfortunate victims of mans inhu-
manity to man" as exemplified by the
| treatment OF american seamen by their
officers. Others are those who were so
unfortunate as 10 witness the brutality
which brought their shipmates to the
same condition of prison life in which
they find themselves. The result of this
| trea tment OF innocent men is to defeat
the ends of justice, for these men and
others who learn of this method of de-
tention will never tell of a crime they
may witness, knowing felon's cell and
a felon's fare await them pending the
time they may be called to assist in
/ the work of bringing the guilty to JUS
Itice''
This report was handed to Judge
Estee with the request that a copy be
! sent TO the United States Attorney
General at Washington.
| Judge Estee glanced it over hastily
and said that this would be done. The
Grand Jury was then dismissed for the
day.
COURT NOTES.
The case now on trial in the First
| Circuit, the second judge presiding, is
/ that of Manu-, charged with assault
and battery with a dangerous weapon,
on one Kaomea. This is the case pre-
| Viously on trial, wherein the jury dis
agreed and jurymen Schmidt and
| Quinn We're censured by Judge Hum
phreys and by him a forfeiture of
their per diem fees ordered.
The jury is as follows: Joseph
! Lightfoot Clinton J. Hutchins, James
j. Mcdonald. Paul f. r. Strauch,
Joseph H. Lichtig. Albert Trask, Chas.
Bon, Arthur Coyne, Fred 3. Damon,
Milus w. Parkhurst, Robert S. Har-
rison and Frederick S. Lyman Jr.
The trial of John Mailua. charged
with assaulting an officer, continued
from Thursday, was concluded yester-
day morning before the First Circuit
Court, the second judge presiding.
a stipulation agreed upon by counsel
in the case of J. o. Carter. trustee vs.
Sybil A Carter ct al, extending time
to plead, answer or demur, has been
| filed by Robertson e. Wilder and Kin
new BalIou g. McClanahan the attor-