The Paducah sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, 1903-09-28
THE POWERS VERDICT
AND SENTENCE
Louisville Post.

that coming tragedy.
The Evening Post has sought to
give perfectly impartial reports of
these great state trials, and 1t has re-
Trained from comment ON the events
of the trial from day to day. But so
serious in its consequences and so I'M
portant in its progress are these trials
that neither silence nor comment can
magnify the meaning OF these events.
When asked by the judge II he had
any cause to show why sentence should
not be passed upon him MIR. Powers
replied. mot guilty, judge"
Then the judge, in few words, de-
fined the whole tragedy and showed
how not the prisoner alone but the
state itself, was involved.
mot guilty" said the prisoner.
"If that be true said the judge,
"thsn an awful calamity has befallen
You and this commonwealth"
The verdict rests largely on the tes'
timony Of men indicted, some convict
cd and many confessinR to falsehoods
told at different times in different cir
cumstances, but all told for the pur.
pose Of escaping the vengeance Of the
pursuers; all told, whether falsely or
faithfully, in order to put the guilt
upon other men.
These trials. these three trials, in
different counties, have been before
three Democratic jur!es, and yet there
is nothing in our laws excluding Re.
publicans from the juries. II does
not meet this objection to soy that
there IL nothing in our laws allowing
anyone to inquire INFO the political
opinions CT men summoned to serve
on the 1uries. Our laws are written
to establish Justice, and all men ac-
cused are entitled to trial before ju'
ries impartially selected. II the 40
cused may not demand . political poll
of the jury, the state is under every
obi CATION to see to II that the element
Of political prejudice in such case is
red uced to the vanishing point.
There 10 no doubt that Kentucky
has suffered greatly from q failure to
execute the laws against murder, but
respect for the laws is not secured by
the death of an innocent man. Let Us
imagine Jefferson Davis arraigned for
the murder of Abraham Lincoln and
tried under the fury and passion born
of that great tragedy. Then consider
he nation arrsigned at the bar OF his
tory for such a crime.
France was the victim OF falseh God
and perjury, working on ignorance
and false sentiment Of patriotism,
when she sent Dreyfus to DEVILS Is
land. Fortunately, grave as was the
crime it was not irIeparable. France
was appealed to by her own citizens
in whom reason had not been de-
shroned, and the man who had been
the victim of the wild passions Of the
hour was recalled to honor and to
France-but 1t is not in the power OF
the state to recall q man executed on
the gallows
In the face Of all our recent history
one can read In this verdict and In
this sentence only q great calamity to
the state. For more than three years
Powers has been confined in jail with
out bail. Three times he has been tried
before juries made mp Of political op-
ponents. without means and with few
friends, he has maintained his limo
cence and pleaded for the simplest
rights of the humble citizen. Against
him have been turned the wrath OF the
prosecution, and the accusations OF
the confessed assassin seeking for i'm
munity or an easier life.
There must yet be a return to req
son. No society can endure which
does not establish reason in law, ant
so make, not passion, but Justice, pre-
vail. Kentucky by all tradition anc
by all achievement is entitled to stant
first in the rams of civilized states
but greed and passion. united will
partisan hate and disappointment
have dragged her into the very vale,
of humiliation.
The three years struggle is to emf
with On execution on the gallows, sn'
the day fixed is the Wednesday befor
Thanksgiving The man whom In No
vember. 1899, the pc ople Of Kentuck.