Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-04-05
CHIEF JUSTICE
SCORES BABBL|NG
BY GRAND JURY
Secrets OF Deliberations Not
Kept According to Oath, Jurist
Declares in Charge.

Chief Justice William S. Gummere
raped former grand juries hard for
lack of secrecy in their work and i'm
pressed upon the April grand jury,
sity of them taking action to see that
the Sunday saloon closing act was en-
forced.
The charge to the new jury was di-
rect, incisive and to the point. Chief
Justice Gummere did not waste or
mince words. He, made no reference
whatever to affairs at the Overlook
Asylum, upon which the preceding jury
spent SO much time.
Following the swearing in Of the jury
by County Clerk John b. Woolston,
Foreman John A. Furman arose and
asked that Edward A. Wurth be eX-
cused from serving. 1t was explained
that MI. Wurth Is very deaf. The re-
quest was granted by the chief JUS
tice. This makes Albert E.. Allsopp,
chosen as the rwenty-fourth member
of the panel, a regular member of the
jury.
lin
charge, as follows:
Each time l hear the solemn path
that is administered to you grand
jurors 1 am impressed by Its terseness'
1t requires you to diligently, not cur
scrily, examine evidence. If your con-
clusion leads you to believe no law has
been broken you cannot return an IN
dictment. If your conclusions make
YOU believe an overt act has been COM
mitred, then you must return an 1ndlct-
Then, again, is the part of the oath
You are to keep secret the counsel
reposed in you 1t is no Hinfrequent oc-
currence that a grand juryman dis
regards this part of his a n tells
to those outside the secrets of the jury.
1t is not intended that outsiders should
know the secrets of a grand inquisition.
1t is a sacred trust imposed In you men.
"How much easier it IS for you to
keep inviolate your oath if you do not
talk to anyone interested in matters
that come before you, nc matter
whether they be Of a personal, political
or any other %nature?
st am sorry the oath is not always
kept, n need only refer to the news
papers of recent date. / can conceive
of no more wicked, disgraceful thing
than the telling outside by a grand
juror of what takes place in the jury
room."
Chief Justice Gummere then called
attention to three homicide cases that
were not cleaned up by the December
grand jury. They are those of little
Sadie Tishkowitz, the ~5-year-old child
found lead in a barn at 27 Jones street
on February 8 last; of Yup Key, the
Chinese restaurant keeper who was
stabbed to death by an Italian on the
night of February 20, and the case of
John Papalo, who shot and killed his
mother on March rs last during a row
at his home in Van Buren, street.
Then came the arrangement of the
open saloons OF Sunday.
There is a law prohibiting the sale
of liquor on Sunday" said the chief
justice. Investigation has proved that
here in Newark it is not obeyed. 1t is
a law and should be obeyed. You and
I are not concerned with the wisdom
of prohibiting the sale of liquor on
Sunday. We have no right to permit
cur individual opinion to govern us ons
iota. We are sworn to enforce the laws
ard not selected to make them.
ut is our duty only to enforce the
laws as they exist. If every member
of this grand jury was opposed to the
law prohibiting the sale of liquor or
Sunday it would still be your duty tc
put aside the question Of your persona
views II deal with the question as
the law requires.
"If the proof of the violation of the
law is plain the path of the grand jury
to move in correction of the violation
is equally plain"