The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-06-05
A JURY SECURED
IN LEE LET CASE
From Thursdays Advertiser.)


A jury to try Lee Let was secured
afternoon in Judge Robinsons court.
Nineteen men in ali were examined on
their voir dire, six of them being chal-
lenged peremptorily and one for cause.
As soon as the jury was secured an
adjournment was taken to 10 o'clock
this morning when the hearing of evil
dence will begin.
There was a delay of nearly an hour
/ in beginning the case caused by the
I fact that Col. Jones, the stenographer,
was on the witness stand in an eject
ment suit in Judge De Bolts court.
/ AS soon as the roll of the jurors was
I called. Frank Thompson, in reply to
a question by Judge Robinson, said
I that the defendant Lee Let was ready.
and Deputy Attorney General Larnach
for the Territory answered ready.
Twelve men were called into the jury
box. and Mr.. Larnach very concisely
tolc them that in this case the indict-
mer charges Lee Let with bribing or
trying to bride Chief of Detectives A.
p Taylor. He then began the examin-
alton of the jurors, Frank Godfrey be-
! ing the first man questioned. Mr.. Lar
mach asked the jurors as to their ac-
quaintance with the defendant and his
attorney. and if the relation of attor-
ney and client existed or had existed,
and generally whether the juror be-
/ lieved he could give a fair and and
impartial trial.
Thompson's questions were as to the
! jurors acquaintance with Larnach and
Sutton. who are conducting the pros
ecution. with A. P. Taylor, Chief of
I Detectives. and with r. o. Matheson
and H. NJ. Ayres, two of the witnesses
in the case He asked if. in arriving
at a verdict, there would necessarily
be placed on the present police admin
istration the seal of approval, or upon
the preceding administration the seal
of disapproval. if that would influence
them. To this Larnach objected as be-
ing irrelevant, but Judge Robinson
overruled the objection.
Thompson asked if jurors had any
prejudice against Chinese, or had opin-
ions as to whether Chinese were more
prone to tell the truth or otherwise
than whites. Z. H. Lewis said he hau
and was excused for cause. Mr..
Thompson asked if jurors would give
the same weight or credence to the
testimony of a Chinese as they would
to a white man under the same condi-
tons. Mr. Larnach objected to this
as being Impossible for a juror to say
in advance what weight or credence he
would give to the testimony of any
witness as he must have the whole OF
the witness testimony, his demeanor
and all other circumstances before him
before he could say what weight or
credence he would give to the testi- |
mony Thompson cited a case from |
California where that form of ques- |
ton was allowed. But Judge Robin
son sustained the objection holding
that the juror could be asked as to
he would give the same con-
to the testimony of a Chi
naman as to white, tut not as to
whether he would give the same weight
or credence.
With another juror Thompson, hold
ing up an Advertiser, asked him if he
recalled re aiding a particular article
the Lee Let case which APP
peared in it. To this Larnach object
ed. on the ground that the juror had
already stated that he had read the
articles in the Advertiser but that they
would not affect his verdict. Thomp-
son argued that he had a right to in
quire into the mind of the juror to
learn whether or not he had been in
fuenced by his reading independent of
the juror was conscious of
such influence or not. He said that
there had been more than forty articles
on the subject of Lee Let published
ha 4 + h.
jected that the question was not what
the Advertiser had said, but whether
Lee Let had sought to bride Chief of
Detectives Taylor as he was charged
with having done. Judge Robinson
sustained the objection and refused to
allow the question Thompson through>
out continued references to the Ad-
vertiser, and its attitude. He asked
If it should appear that certain arti-
cles were written by A. P. Taylor if
it would affect the jurors verdict.
When this policy became obvious, Mr..
Larnach began asking jurors as to
their views of the credibility of news
papermen, putting his question in this
form:
should it be nessary to call as wit
nesses in this case newspapermen,
would you give their testimony the
same consideration that you would
other Witnesses
Twelve men having been found who
on their oaths said that they would
discredit neither newspapermen nor
Cinnamon, because of their occupation
in the one case, or their color in the
other, they were sworn to try the is
sues. They are:
Robert Bemrose, Edwin Benner, ]. ].
Egan. William A. Hall, c. ]. Ludwig
sen, Thomas Mclean, Jacob Orden-
stein. Charles P. Osborne, John Pada-
ken Jr., Frank ]. Robello. ]. J. Sulli-
van and Fred Turrill.
Judge Robinson gave the jury the
usual admonition not to discuss the
ease with others or to let others dis
cuss the case with them and dismissed
them for the day.
The taking of testimony will pro-
ceed this morning.
JUDGE PARKER COMING.