The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-02-09
GRAND JURY SYSTEM
SHOULD Be PRESERVED

is a matter that is not thoroughly I'M
Iderstood here but it is a protection
| which should not be decried. AS q
lmeans OF unbiased examination into the
conduct of the peoples officers alone it
should be maintained. AS a means of
preventing a man from running the rep
Iutation of a neighbor, with whom he
| has had some sagreement, by filing
an Infamous information against him,
it ought to be maintained. For many
other reasons which cannot be men
| toned it should be kept up. OF course,
there is no danger of its being allowed
to lapse a s long as we are a Territory
of the United States.
1t is admitted that the grand jury is
sometimes used. Notwithstanding the
safeguards which surround it, as a
means whereby one man can vent his
spleen on another, although so far l am
sure such things have not been done
in Hawaii. Some men when appointed
on grand juries are largely biased by
the will of the District Attorney and
brig indictments against their fellow
men which should not have been
brought, or in other words allow them
selves to be tools for carrying out the
spleen of a District Attorney who really
may be acting at the behest of some
third party. AS I have had the en-
pannelling of many grand juries
know whereof speak. I know of one
instance in San Diego Co, where the
District Attorney succeeded in p&ocur-
ing the indictment of a judge of Su-
periOr Court, to do which he had to get
one of the jurors under the influence
of liquor in order to obtain the req
uisite number. AS the matter with .
which the judge was charged occurred
in the discharge of his duties he should
have been impeached. As a matter of
fact he was as innocent of any intent
or wrong as the veriest stranger. On
the trial which followed the petit jury
saw through the animus of the prose-
cutting attorney and rendered q YER
dict of mot guilty on the first ballot
and they were not over five minutes in
their retiring room. The sheriff saved
their ballots and gave them to me and
some of them We're daisies, such as
Not guilty by a-site; TO hell with
the district attorney well punish |
him at the coming election" etc, and
they did, for he was no more heard Of. |
[ remember a case where many grand |
juries would have indicted the party |
but which the one it was brought be-
fore refused to return true bill
One of the political shysters who OBJ
tain office in payment for work done at
election times was fofsted on me when
acting as chief in the County Clerk
Office He was no clerk and his repu-
tation was bad but I had to make
place for him. In course of time he
got into trouble and got his deserts.
He was indicted for attempt to COM
NIT murder and if ever a scoundrel
was guilty he was.
He had seuuced q young woman and
persuaded her to go north to Seattle
and he would follow and marry her
there. He gave her a bottle of medi-
cine and directed her on her arrival at
certain hotel to take a table spoon
full of it the first evening and repeat
each night for three nights He would
arrive on the fourth day and they woul
be married. She happened to tell one
of her chums of what she was going to
take when the chun persuaded her TO
go with her to a drug store.
On examination of the medicine it
was found to be 50 carbolc acid. one
dose of which would have been suffi-
ctent to cure all the ills of this life.
All the hate in the woman was now
thoroughly aroused and she lodged a
complaint against him.
On the first trial his attorney got in
to a row with the judge over a letter
which the judge had received from the
Swedish consul and he abused the
judge to such an extent that the court
gave him thirty days in the cooler for
contempt. This broke up the trial and
it came to Department One. where I
was acting clerk, and where the de-
nouement took place.
Several ladies of the city regularly
accompanied the pro ecuting witness
day by day, not to see that she got JUS
tice but to encourage their sister by
their presence. Such trials attract