New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-03-18

According 70 lawyers. jrors and high court
officials. The jury system o this city has become
more corrupt than ct an time since the days
q the notorious Tweed. Jury1nen are said to
nave sold themselves 70 SO and up, and some
court clerks are said have leagued them
selves with powerful corporations for the pur-
pose Of putting bribed Jurors into the Jury box
Those who have sought the fountain head of
his pollution have fond that It sprang from
the evil alliance between certain corporate in
teTesls II this city AM Tammany Hall. These
corporations have palt money to Tammany for
me election OF its ticket and in return have de-
rnanceo that even tn, courts shall be Swung"
10 their profit and fggrandizement- The cor
Tuptlng OF Juries therefore, is said to be not an
occasional crime, With alternate success and
laliure' but wide reaching ana comprehensive
system which has been worked out according 10
me tables OF actusries. and which, in nineteen
cases out Of twenty, overwhelms its victim
The recent confession Of William H. Filling
mast who said that for many years he had taken
money from a street railway COMPANY To st on
1uries and 20 obtain verdicts favorable to that
company may have startled the average citi-
zen but II did not surprise lawyers who have
been hghting such corporations. I have won
aered that the Id did not come of long before &"
said one prominent attorney. we lawyers have
suspected that things were rotten in our Jury
system but we did not dare attack the men
"hOTn We thought were 70 blame. Some may call
y co"ardly, # they Will. but they don't under
hIsIo Lawyers have TO make a living and they
-on L as & rule, care 10 strike at those officials
Nho nave the power TO cripple their practice and
endanger the interests. Of their clients"
FIGHT AGAINST THE EVIL WIDENs
since T1llinghast told how he had sold himself
IS a juror the fight against this evil has come
iIeo me open, and each day It has assumed
greater and more formidable proportions Judge
5eaoury. Of the City Court, aroused by the ac-
eusauon that the clerks OF his court were rig
glng" jur1es under his very nose, has begun an
investigation which promises sensational deveI-
oprnents- resolution was introduced before
he State Bar Association at its last annual
meeting by A. Edward Woodruff a LAWYER Of
NO II Broadway, asking for an investigation
81 the methods pursued IN their litigation by
street railway companies in this city A resolu-
zion was also introduced in the Legislature for
an investigation Of the judiciary OF the state
With the purpose Of finding out what relations
y any, exist between the bench and the street
railways The Governor has been petitioned TO
pardon TillI1ghast. who, soon after his confess
sion, was arrested for inlpersonating Juror who
wanted 70 be excused from serving The plea
for the pardon is that because Tillinghast has
uncovered what appears TO be q far reaching
conspiracy 70 thwart the ends Of justice he
should be permitted 70 help IN the prosecution
OF The men who used him as their tool.
IN the CRY Court, according TO lawyers who
practise there, jury fixing has been done far
more openly than in the Supreme Court The
chief clerk Of the City Court is Thomas F. Smith,
secretary OF Tammany Hall. The Supreme
Court clerks said TilIinghast. wouldn't stand
any monkey business. man had TO be on the
panel 70 get into the jury box. But in the City
Court it was different The gang there had all
that fixed I vas on the jury there in lots of
cases when was not on the panel at all The
clerk would call my name, that's all Every
BODY thought he was reading It from the panel,
but he was not. He'd Just put his arm in the
wheel, take out 2 slip and. no matter what name
was written on IL he would call:
William 4. TilIInghast"
and then I'd step up and go through the red
tape OF the examination. and get on. Some
Zines Ia SIT on several cases in one week that
way. Whenever the company would want me II
would send a man 70 my house 20 tell me what
court 70 appear IN. Then 7 simply sat there
until my name was called"