Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-12-17

wa Iowa. under the Act Of Congress Of
+ March 8. 1879.
THE POWERS CASE.
The attention Of the whole country
is attracted at this time to the case
OF Caleb Powers. former secretary of
state Tor Kentucky and now accused Of
having murdered State Senator Goebel
IN the capitol grounds at Frankfort.
Three times has Powers been SEN
fenced as an accessory to the crime.
and three times has the court of ap-
peals Of Kentucky reversed the SEN
tence. The case has long since come
to be regarded as one of the greatest
political affairs in the country's history
and 1t overshadows every other con-
sideration In Kentucky elections
The first two reversals were made
by q court of appeals OF which the ma
jority of members were republicans.
The third however, was made by a
court unanimously democratic The
attitude of the states highest tribunal
is an Indication that Kentucky is shak-
Ing off the letters of partisanship and
that the leading jurists are determined
to give the accused man the rights to
which he is entitled but which he has
been denied at each of the three trials
on the charge Of murder. When the
case was sent back the third time for
a retrial because of many errors in
the original trial, three Of the demo
cratic members of the court ioined in
a caustic criticism Of the lower court
and it's methods The selection of the
Jury calls forth scathing criticism
from these men of Justice anddn their
. finding they say:
The administration of even-handed
Justice has no more insidious enemy
than political prejudice; it enters un-
seen and unsupported into the human
mind corrodes the reason and under
mines the judgment; neither purity Of
heart nor exaltation of character af-
fords an antidote for this deadly poi
son; indeed these virtues may we'll
magnify the evil, for the mind thus
possessed Is all the more ready to en-
force the oblique Judgment when 1t
has no cause to suspect its own integ-
rity. The pages of history are elo-
quent with the evils of this passion.
1t is recorded that the ferocious
soldiery sent to harry the inhabitants
of Somersetshire after the rebellion of
1885. although disciplined in the ra-
pine of Tangier. inspired the followers
of unhappy Monmouth with less ter
ror than did Lord Jeffries with his
forms Of law and courtly juries; that
when the English government estab-
lished the common law in India the
native who found himself entangled in
g.
ism to smile in the face of death, was
frozen with terror in the presence of
mysterious system whose procedure
was in an unknown tongue, and whose
verdicts we're rendered by unsympa-
thetic strangers from across the sea.
"Those conversant with current his
tory have seen a highly civilized and
generous people under stress of racial
passion condemn without proof a
soldier charged with a political crime
and sentence him without mercy to
punishment worse than death; and
yet when the storm had spent its force
that judgment was annulled, the vic
tim released, and all the world now
knows his innocence.
TO prevent such miscarriage of
justice the constitution of the nation
prohibits a denial Of the equal pro-
lection Of the laws and the common
law. since Runnymede, guarantees q
trial by an impartial jury of the vicin-
age.
I do not believe that any man
charged with political offense or
with an offense originating in a politt
cal contest, who is tried by a jury
composed wholly Of his political OPP
ponents, can have fair and impartial
trial within the meaning of the law.
Nor do Itbelieye that 1t Is valid ex-
cuse to say there are no qualified jur-
ors of the party Of the accused in the
county where the jury is sumEoned,
when there are other counties in
which this adverse circumstance does
not exist The securing of fair trial
under all circumstances is of more i'm
portance to the commonwealth than
the punishment Of any particular de-
fendant, no matter what his guilt"
The first two sentences given Pow
ers In the lower courts were for life
imprisonment. The third was for
death. Each time he testified in his
own behalf and on the occasion of the
last trial he addressed the jury. The
evidence was entirely circumstantial
as Powers is admitted to have been
out Of the city and fully thirty miles
from the scene of the crime when 1t
was committed The fact, however,
that he was a friend Of the republican
governor-elect. Governor Taylor, and
that he was republican leader in
Kentucky, was enough to convince the
partisan jury that he was guilty. Al
though he has faced thirty-six men in
his three trials, only one Of the entire
number has been a republican and he
camHfrom part Of the state that ex-
posed him to intimidation.
The record of the Powers case does
not reflect upon the democracy Of the
nation nor necessarily of that of Ken
lucky but 1t does reflect discredit
upon the men who for partisan rea-
sons have been bounding Powers and
trying, by fair means or foul to send
him to his death for crime of which
Il