Bluefield evening leader. [volume] (Bluefield, W. Va.) 1906-1911, 1906-06-17
THE FOREMAN
OF THE JURY.
How He Once Defeated Circumstan-
tial Evidence

Very eminent legal authorities
agree that as 90 the facts OF a case
the jury is more likely to be right
than the Judge This week. howev-
err. we have had another addition To
the lengthy list of instances OF the
Judge censuring a jury upon it's find
ing. "As clear case as had ever
come before him." he said. as he or
dcred the jury to- go home Possibly
the judge was right. II is well TO re
member. however. that had all the
cases which have appeared so clear
TO judge gone as their lordships de
sired more than few innocent men
would have been sent to the gallows
An instance comes TO mind. one of
the most extraordinary in the history
of our legal system, the account OF
which we owe TO the man who tried
and presided over the trial. Lord
Chief Justics Dyer. This was clear
case Of murder. The victim had
been found stabbed to death in
field nd by his side was the pitch
fork with which the deed had been
done. The man who owned the forI,
was arrested, and the bloodstained
suit he had worn was found hidden
in a mattress.
Short of testimony from any one
who had seen the crime actually com
mitted. there was not one missing
link from the chain of evidence
against the prisoner. 1t was in vain
that he pleaded not guilty; every
thing was so conclusiycly clear
against him. verdict of guilty was
expected Immediately from the jury.
but the foreman asked that as the
life" of a fellow creature was at
stake the jury might be allowed TO
retire. The Judge did not understand
why they should do so in so simple
a case; still. the jury had its wish.
1t did not return The court ad-
journed for luncheon; the jury did
not come back in the afternoon. and.
In spite Of several anxious inquiries
from the bench, it had not made up
It's mind when the court rose for the
day-there was one man holding out.
The jury was locked up for the night
and in the morning was brought into
court to return verdict of not gull
ty. This was a poser, and the Judge
dismissed the jury saying, The blood
Of the deceased lies at your door"
Private inquiry by the judge ellie
tied the fact that the foreman. a man
of unblemished reputation and of
considerable estate had been the
cause Of the verdict, which the rest
had been starved into accepting. The
judge sent for this gentleman. and
in his private room begged him to
explain the mystery Of his obduracv
and the amazing finding of his fell
lows, first pledging himself to pro
serve inyiolate any confidence which
the other might repose in him. Then
the foreman told how he himself had
met the victim for whose murder the
prisoner had beeN tried, how this
man had sought to take advantage of
his official position and exact uninst
tithes, how they quarrelled and
fought, how the man had attempted
to Kill him with fork, and how he
'the foreman of the jury) had killed
his antagonist with his own pitch
fork, then fed. The prisoner. com
ing along, had found the man DIVING
and In endeavoring to succor him
had got blood upon his clothes and
IN MS confusion had taken the dead
mans fork and left his own I'm its
place. This is why the foreman hold
out, and why the prisone, o.,a-,.,