The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-04-25
Justice Interfered With.


reasonable indications of crime have been found
indications enough to warrant the detention of
pected persons and enquiry into their connection with
the circumstances by which they surrounded
Justice has its SIDE as we'll as defendants and
we'll as newspapers that prejudice judicial enquiry
based upon presentations by the legitimate servant
of justice-the grand jury,
1t is not to be presumed that body of reputable
citizens to consider mpartlally all evidence
placed before them and to regard their oathS in
reaching their conclusions will have any less regard
for the faithful performance of duty than the par
tial newspaper that may be interested in covering
from public gaze presumed defects in character
charged by the legally constituted authority
Boise has been made the of many specta-
cular demonstrations in the realm of criminal juris
prudence but has not contemplated one more start
ling or more culpabe than the almost simultaneous
assault of its two daily newspapers grand jury
that had lust completed it's work and dissolved its
organization.
The grand jury that indicted Barber Martin,
Moon and Palmer are the subjects of attack and the
Capital-News goes as far it dare go without
openly charging the grand jury with having yielded
to corrupt advances and then proceeds beyond the
jurisdiction of a newspaper in pre-judgng the YER
dict of the trial jury, yet to be summoned
The Statesman makes no account of the evidence
that was probably submitted and charges IN effect
that the indictments were brought because one or
more men were determined to lnd1ct the parties,
whether or no. The joint product of the two news
papers is implied corruption against the grand jury
and implied personal hostility that would ignore the
facts.
Meanwhile the jury and its members are helpless,
the iurv having ceased to exist and the jurymen
being bound BY oath not to use the evidence con-
sdered in public way or in their defence.
What the Capital News said further in criticism OF
the grand Jury in connection with report made by
that body as entirely gratuous and far-tetched tor
a grand jury has right to report to court any
circumstances bearing upon the operation OF Justice
that may come within its observation. More than
right-it has duty to perform The court may
listen or not according to its judgment There IS
no one within a community served to dictate the
course or policy of a court
The elimination last week, in the grand jury foom'
Of the affairs of several persons charged with the
unlawful procurement of public land, terminates
considerable period of time during which certain
numbering legal newspaper and Official interests
were variously complicated and the representatives
thereof became attached to each other in one way
and another.
Reoinnnp with the dawn of the business career
of the late Governor Steunenberg there was obSerV-
able between him and the publisher and the editor
of The Statesman and w. E. Borah attorney Tor
the Barber Lumber company, community OF inter
est that might have been of social or business
character. But whatever it was, it was there, ana
# extended to most of the moves made by the unl-
Der COMPANY and its agents. associates or representa-
tives, including Steuenberg, Borah, Martini WelS'
Downs. Kincaid John Doe Richard Roe
These persons the newspapers has always Deen
ready to defend-as ready as it has been to condemn
the industry in the interest Of the Government, Oh
~ . /, o44oo ATTORNEY Ruick and Office Re-