Newport weekly independent., 1904-09-09
THE IhE==- -yURT'S CHARGE
 TO TWO JURIES.
Judge Allen Hughes Defines Du- ties of Grand and Petit Ju-
 TOTS in Opening Charges.

JuuSS AllGIl IluSIico VI JOilCo- boro, who presides at the Septem- Der term of circuit court in the absence of Hon. F. D. Fulkerson, owing to the latter's ill health, delivered a charge to the grand and petit juries, which is gener- ally regarded by members of the bar as one of the ablest exposi- tions of the duties of jurors ever rendered in the courts of this section.
 Judge Hughes is not only a young looking man, but young man in point of years. In his court deliverances, both in style and subject matter, he impress es the nearer as a jurist of expe- rience, whose vigorous, yet con- servative expressions bear the stamp of a mature mind drilled in actual practice.
 In addressing the grand jury he urged upon them as enforcers of the law and public servants as much as officials elected for a term of years, 2. close and care full inquiry into infractions of the law, distinguishing between that disregard and violation of it's pre- visions which becomes criminal and that for which pecuniary damages must satisfy the wrong.
 Stress was laid upon the in- junction that all party and re- ligious, race and factional feel ing be disregarded in their inves- tigations, and that even friend ship had no right to expect other than an impartial searching af- ter the truth. The rights of all were the same under the law, and as public servants they should do their full duty, untram- meled by personal obligations or feelings.
 The speaker referred to the re- cent trouble in Crittenden coun- ty, where warning political fac tions had threatened riot and bloodshed, and as protection against such conditions, he be- lieved the statute against the carrying of concealed weapons, so commonly disregarded, should be rigidly enforced and prosecu- tions brought wherever the law had been violated. The remedy he found not in the severity of the penalty for it's infraction, but the certainty of conviction for the offense.
 There were a score of other good points touched upon in a convincing manner by the court, and to the petit jury, his honor made an equally effective and in- structive charge.
 To the latter body, the finality of whose decisions from which there is no appeal upon their finding of the facts, though the court might err and be reversed by the higher tribunals on inter- apretation of the law, he urged the importance of their duties, that while the grand jury might charge, it fell to them to deter mine the guilt of the defendant. And in civil cases, with them rested the property rights of a citizen as set forth under the law, which was ever to be up- held. The jurors idea of jus tice was not to be consulted; he must determine the facts and follow the law of the state which was the embodied wisdom of ages and most nearly represented justice in all cases. It was the law which a citizen must respect and feel that he and his property interests were safely guarded thereby, and whether he be black or white, a native or non- resident, corporation or individ- ual, his rights under a common law were the same. Upon the