Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-03-11

under this law, no matter what evil
dence might be presented. This pre-
diction appeared to be well founded.
because al the next term of the court
submitted to the grand jury clear and
positive evidence of violations of the
| statute by retail liquor dealers in the
city of Albuquerque, and the grand
jury refused to take any action. | may
say without improperly that there
( were several members of the grand
jury interested, directly or indirectly,
in the retail liquor business, and that
1t mas been generally asserted in this
community that the grand jury had
been selected for the purpose of not
finding indictments for this class of
offenses. Whether this be true OIL not,
1t is quite certain that we had a grand
jury which was not disposed to find in
dictments &c other crimes as well, and
that in a number of cases. charges
were ignored where the evidence made
it TIC duty Of any honest grand Juror
20 ind Indictments.
By a singular coincidence, the panel
of peut Jurors appears to have been
inspired ~ similar feelings. and it has
been asserted OF them that they were
selected for the express purpose of
preventing convictions. AS n result,
after trying two cases, IN each of
which the evidence of guilt was clear,
convincing and unequivocal, while the
verdict vas not guilty, nearly the
whole panel having participated in the
two trials, | was compelled to refuse
to try any more criminal cases with
such jurors.
1t is undoubtedly true that a district
attorney can prosecute offenders
against the Sunday law by information
without the concurrence of the grand
jury. but each information must be
] supported by the affidavit Of some per-
son having knowledge of the guilt of
the defendant. As indicated in my re-
port to you of last year. | do not un-
derstand that it is properly the duty Of
a district attorney to attempt to create
cases under this law by the employ
ment of persons to make such afh-
davits. He has no public funds to de-
/ vote to that purpose, and for him to
pay for such evidence out of his own
pocket puts him in the position of man
ufacturing cases for the purpose of in
! ~creasing his own emoluments, and un
der a law by which the legislature has
indicated the grade of the offense to
| it VI iilt iOMtots ht 'C'aC
by fine from SIS to SIS, or Imprisonment
from 8 to Is days. Had any reputable
| citizen complained to me of any Of
tense under this law. | would have had
him make the necessary affidavit and
| filed an information. although as 1t
turned out, it would have been useless
| to bring any such case to trial at the
I last term of the court. Not a single
person., however, has ever come to me
with such complaint, which would
seem to indicate a lack of public inter
est in the subject of Sunday closing in
this community.
| have made the following statements
at some length in order to demonstrate
to you that. as one of your appointees,
have already attempted fully to dis
! charge my duty, with regard TO the
! subject of which you now write, and to
| show the reasons why my efforts have
not been effective. My position is the
same now as it was last year, and J
! expect to pursue the same course. !
, will call before the grand jdIy, at the
next term in this county, witnesses,
who there is reason TO believe may
have knowledge on this subject, and II
| indictments are found, the cases VIII
be prosecuted: or If any person VIII
present himself to me. willing to make
the necessary a~fidavits. | will file in
formations against the alleged offend
ers, and will prosecute them the same
as others. More than this. | cannot
properly do. Very respectfully,
F. w. CLANCY.