Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1909-08-20

HYlIIWS try jurist of long expert
NM ence whose reverence for
RAa2SA the English bench caused
him unwittingly to assume the person
al appearance of a wearer of the wig
and ermine of Blackstonian days.
Judge bennett introduced him as
Judge Tanner and assured the club
that his guest was primed with many,
a Renaissance of his long career and
would gladly furnish the story of the
evening. After the pipes of good fell
lowship had been burned for space
Judge Tanner arose and began his
story of circumstantial evidence.
Il often wonder" he said, 'if there
is trial Judge of any considerable
experience who has not carried some
one case as a load on his mind and
conscience for years after the verdict |
of the jury is in and the condemned |
led away to execution. 1t is wise
provision of the law that makes the
jury the judge both of the law and
the evidence, and the judge but the
medium through which the law
reaches the twelve; and cannot con-
ceive the condition of mind of those
early English judges, before whom,
when they had arrived at a conviction
of guilt, even the jury was power
less. 1t was from their arbitrary and
unreasonable rulings now happily not
held within the power of the judge,
that most of our records of miscarried
justice have resulted.
within my own experience there
has come one case which l believe is
as strange as any of record and which
for years, as l looked back upon it,
caused me to doubt the ability of man
ever infallibly to pass judgment upon
fellow creature The parties now
are all dead and l tell it for the first
!, time. But to the story.
Tn little city on the circuit in
J which | have held court for more
J years than / care to think of there
} was at one time a hotel kept by a
very respectable man named iona
than Miller. Itwas the favorite stop
! ping place for commercial travellers
and thus the most prominent and best
! paying hotel in the city.
One evening jewelry salesman by
the name of Robert Conway arrived
at the hotel just before supper He
instructed Miller to send his grips uI
to his room and remarked in the hear
4 ing of several at the desk that he did
!. not care to have them left in the gen
/ eral baggage room as he was carrying
q far more expensive line of samples
o than usual. He also asked that the
i door be carefully locked and the Ike!
q brought to him.
K Supper over, he fell in with,
salesman for a shoe house and on
Il for a clothing firm and they repaire
lie to the bar where they played card
IS and drank until IL o'clock, when the
r all retired. 1t happened that the hote
he was we'll filled and the clothing ma
n and the shoe man had been forced
as take a double room together. Thi
We room was directly across the ha
from the one occupied by the jewelr
salesman.
,r About two o'clock in the morEin
ed the two roommates were awakened b
he groans which seemed to come fro
of the room of their companion of IL
he evening across the hall.
re They arose and without stopping
IL dress hurried out to see what the tro
Ill BILE was You can imagine their he
oil ror to find Conway, the jewe1ry ma
he dead, the bed blood-soaked, and stan
ly. ing over him, a dark lantern in Oh
Try hand and a bloody knife in the othe
ne, Jonathan Miller, the landlord, WI
nd trcmbled violently and gasped inc
The herently when they burst into t
chamber of death
THE case seemed black enou
~ against him. There was not 81
nv picion in the mind of anyone in t
10" city that he could be otherwise tn
ga. guilty Yet when taken before a j
ne. tice for preliminary hearing he mt
an stoutly maintained his innocence a
lor told a story which had it not pal
he into improbability by the side
,ea. damning circumstances against h
IND would have been plausible in the
one IRENE
and He said he had just reached
room after, as was his custom,
ting up until a train due at half p
4 one. came in. He had not had ii
iio' to remove his clothing when he, t
ISL heard groans coming from the nei
lar borhood of Conway's room. Like
us two statesmen. he had hurried to
=. yestigate, and as weapon of
u Tense he had taken the knife.
- also picked up the dark lantern VIII
he always used in making his
rmi- rounds Of the hotel and which
go still lighted
and when he reached the jewel
that door he was surprised to find it sta
n it ing open. The groans had cea
It.