The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-20
LET ROGERS AND SORRELL
SPEAK OUT OR EXPECT TO
SUFFER STILL FURTHER
PUNISHMENT FOR
THOSE "HIGHER


which theyAwere found to be in con-
tempt of Court and imprisoned for
thirty days, the silence of Messrs.
Rogers and Sorrell as to who sent
them forth on their mission to corrupt
the jury i'm the Gattis- Kilgo case con-
stitutes a far greater wrong to So
ciety and good morals than what they
actually attempted to accomplish with
the two regularly summoned jurors
whom they approached.
The theory that in attempting to in
1uencc the jury these men were mere
ly interesting themselves gratuitously
in a case in which they had no real
or contractural concern is one that
is not tenable to mind accustomed
to reflect in even the most primitive
fashion on the moving impulses OF
human action. Here were two men
whom both DR.. Kilgo and Mr.. Duke
swore they did not know or knew so
slightly as scarcely to count them as
acauaintances. They were found on
one occasion together on a mission to
influence juryman King, Mr.. Rogers
being so far in an unknown section of
the county that, with his long expert
encc as a county politician, he is later
found at q loss to know the road back
home. On another occasion, Mr.. Sor-
rell is discovered talking to Juror
Maroon, and not only attempting to
h 10
jury corruptly and, with thin circum-
locution, holding out the offer of
bride, but also stating that he was
sent by the defense and fixing Mr.
Rogers as his co-laborer in the previ-
Gus attempt to influence Juror King.
In fact he stated that Mr.. King was
all right as far as voting went, but
that he wanted somebody who could
talk"-to- wit, Mr.. Maroon.
This was testimony which the re-
spondents did not attempt to deny on
the stand and only in the most per-
functory manner in their respective
answers filed in response to the rules.
1t is testimony which either mega
dependent action on their part or
creates chain of circumstances
which never before existed in the
case of innocent conduct. If the con-
vcrsations grew out of a personal in
terest and with no desire to corrupt
the jury, why in each case did the re-
spondents ask at the end of their con-
versation that the jurors approached
'say nothing about what they had
been talking about?" To believe
otherwise than that they were sent, or
that they acted in response to some
inducement foreign to their own vo-
lition. is to argue oneself either
blinded partizan or a supplemented
idiot. The passion for meddling is
strong, but it is not SO mixed with
either the toll the time or the con-
currence of circumstance that have
characterized this affair, which is the
boil breaking out on the surface of
what is believed by many to be
dangerous disease of the judicial sys-
tenn, affecting the prospective rights
and liberties of the individual and
creating a doubt as to the equable
dispensation of justice in the Courts.
Who sent them forth? That is yet
a mystery. So far neither of the re-
spondents have uttered a word. Their
mouths are closed. Even the ter
rors of a Jail in hot weather, place
filled with negroes, with the sounds
and nosesome odors inseparable
from places of confinement of the
sort, did not avail to break their re-
serve. They put up a formal defense
and take their medicine with the
taciturnity of a martyr to better
tentionaIly at its face value. In
sense, Messrs. Rogers and Sorrell are
just that. They are paying the pen
atty of serious indiscretion, of blatant
disregard for others rights, of con-
tempt for the fair administration of
the courts. But in a sense are they
scapc-g goats They should have com
pany. Cooped in the Jail, they can
catch today perhaps a glimmer of
the sunshine, glance at the blue
sky of which the greater criminal has
the broader view. They must know
who he is! They know, but they suffer.
Either are they men of iron cast, or
there is a quantum for their suffer-
ings! The situation, if it were not so
pregnant with meaning, would con-
stitute a laughable farce with a cyni-
cal refrain!
But what the public is interested in
is to find the real party at interest,
the original maligner' before the
world of the fair name of Wake coun-
ty. How to do it? There is a way
cruel on its face and yet apparently
the only chance. Messrs. Rogers and
Sorrell must tell, or they must suffer
yet again. The law is not exhausted
in their case, Only has the first blow
been struck for the safety of the pub
lie. There is yet another weapon.
Judge Moore awaited himself of it yes
terday when he sent to Raleigh an
order to bind over tho two respond