Goldsboro semi-weekly argus., 1909-10-13
A BRAVE VERDICT.
of the Right Kind Is
This

| This.
Mr.. Robert L. Gray, the new editor
of the Wilmington Star, is already
making that paper ideal in many fea-
lures, but in nothing more so than in
his own editorial work.
In it's issue of yesterday he has the
| following wholesome and matehless
commentary covering many phases OF
the jury system, the dignity of law,
the solemnity of capital verdicts, and
the sacredness of human life, that will
go far and be of great force in press
ing the rights of persons and regard
fo1 law upon even the casual reader.
Here is what he says:
"It is, in the true sense of the word,
an awful thing to sit in court house
and watch a nervous man, hanked by
weeping women, wait for the verdict
of d jury that holds his life in its
hands. When the verdict that falls
from the lips of the foreman is death,
| the sordid detail of court room
crowd is lost in the solemnity of any
occasion where human hands for any
cause dare touch the springs of life,
or put a question to eternity. Such
a scene was enacted in silence in New
Hanover court yesterday, when the
| jury in the Stephens murder trial re-
turned as their verdict that the pris-
oner was guilty of murder in the first
degree. The news thrilled through
the city, borne on the wings of that
strange elation that gives way to in
stant depression when the mind pic
lures the helplessness of man in the
grip of inexorable circumstance.
3'Yet there is every cause for public
congratulation, not SO much for this
verdict ITSELF as for what this verdict
means. The return of this jury of
their finding on the evidence was
brave and sterling act. For days they
had listened to every twist that could
be given the evidence in favor of the
prisoner. Doubtless their every in
clination was to acquit, or, if not to
aoquit, to show mercy. Argument and
pathos were called upon by Jealous
counsel to place in the minds of the
Jury that doubt which they would so
readily have harbored had their oaths
permitted them. In spite of which,
sacrificing their every Instinct to the
demands of justice, they gave as their
v.rdict the extreme penalty Of theI
law. Such an outcome means impress
sive notice to those who would risk
t,e taking of human life in this coun-1
~. We believe that, even if in the
ultimate outcome after appeal and pc
tition for pardon, the prisoner shall
at length satisfy the sentence with
his life, the verdict and sentence will
save several lives, where they cost
one. There is gamblers chance"
i'll verdicts of murder in the second
degree or Of manslaughter; a verdict
OF guilty in the first degree is a mat
ter of another sort, to give even the
most desperate character pause be-
fore he casts his die.
Then, too, the jury was in sense
on trial itself. It was the selection
of the defense, the chosen twelve from
two hundred veniremen. With the
wide range of right of challenge, with
the elimination of many men as ju-
rors, competent to serve under any
rule save the technical bubbles of an
obsolete statute, the fear had gained
ground that, if the jury selected did
not acquit, at least it would be found
to contain some one or more members
who would cause mistria1. This pa
per recently called attention to abuses
of this character, using this case as a
text. When astute counsel make
| twelve selections out of two hundred
| men it is reasonable to suppose that
the men chosen, or some of them, are
persons who from disposition or other
cause are inclined to favor the pris-
| oner. That being true, the fact that
they found themselves able to smoth-
er such tendency does them the
more honor and is greater cause of
pride to the county that produced
them. We could not, in conscience,
| congratulate jury upon finding fell
low man guilty Of a crime punishable
by death; but we can, and do, say that
in the performance of so severe test
of duty they deserve the thanks and
admiration of the whole community