The Glenwood post., 1909-10-16

ulsTricl couTt di ASPEN II ne De SullN
or innocent, the facts in the case should
be laid bare and no step should be TAX
en- that will forever leave single
doubt as to the real status of the
charge.
But, according to the Aspen Demo
crat Times. District Attorney Gentry
has seen fit to dismiss the case for the
following reason:
THAT the district attorney believes
that verdict of guilty could not he
procured from a jury at the trial of
said cause, should information be filed
and said cause tried before a jury as
required by law. -
Has the time passed when an inno-
cent man is just as much entitled to the
clearing of his name from false
charge as is the guilty man of punish
ment? 1t is true, we hold man to be
innocent until he is proven guilty, but
when a man is covered with a shroud
of suspicion as a result of a charge
similar to that made against w. n.
McNichols, he is entitled to have that
shrQud removed by the people who
have placed it about him. To pass on
with no attempt to get at the real facts
is but leaving the stigma of suspicion
no mater how much it is undeserved.
But our district attorney seems to
fear triaal with twelve of Pitkin
county's men in the jury box ready to
hear the case and return verdict ac-
cording to their sworn duty. He leads
one to believe that the men who last
fall elected him again to the office of
district attorney by n vote of two to.
one over his opponent are no longer
capable of deciding case on its merits
and returning their ballot accordingly.
Evidently the learned district attorney
is through with the people of Pitk.n
county and now, that he has secured
another term of office, made possible
to great extent by the good people
of Pitkin county, he looks upon them
as being incapable of deciding cause
that to them means the life of their
county.
The above paragraph as taken from
the Aspen Democrat Times convevs the
idea that the learned district attorney
believes McNiehols guilty of the charge
e
OF embezzlement, but for some reason,
not stated he fears to face Jury Of
Pitkin county farmers and business
men. Polite as his reason may be in
legal parlance, he dimly-if at all
wells an insinuation that should brine
The blush of shame to the face of cverv
man and woman in the district that last
fall cast a vote for Mr.. Gentry for the
Office of district attorney. Will Mr..
Gentry have the nerve to make nlainer
his reasons for doubling the honesty
of the jurors of Pitkin county? Will
he remove the veiled charge and in lis
stead give to his constituents his real
reason for doubling them in the times
of trouble and when a cause of vital
interest TO the taxpayers of Pitkin
county is to be tried and sifted to the
bottom that the real truth NAV he
learned?
Does not District Attorney Gentry
know that the good people of Pit
kin county would be the first to grasp
W. II. McNichols by the hand if,
after fair trial, he should be proven
innocent of the charge? Does he doubt
for one moment that the farmers of
Pitkin county are made of the stuff
that bodies i'll to the lawbreakers of the
county? Why does he fear them?
Justice demands that w. Fl. McNich-
OILS name be cleared of the stain. Jus
tice demands that District ATTORNEY
Gentry punish all lawbreakers and not
let guilty man escape. 1t matters
not whether it be Glenwooi gambler.
saloon keeper, "Mac,' bank robber or
defaulter; the demand is the same and
is his sworn duty to uphold the law.
,S X Il X X