The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1910-12-16
METHODS Of POLICE
SCORED BY COURT
SUPREME COURT SAYS INoUIsl-
TIoN PROCEEDINGS ARE
ILLEGAL.
Conviction Of Peter Miller Set Aside
Because Confession Was Obtained
Under Duress-No Law Officers
Have Been Granted Inquisitorial
Powers.

nave Been Granted lnquisitorial
Powers.
That the decision Of the Supreme
court setting aside the conviction of
in the Peter Miller case will
result, in his going free. is the state
ment Of Judge j. M. Glasgow, the
prisoners attorney. Miller is now con.
fined in the county Jail where he has
been held pending the decision of his
case by the supreme court.
The sensational charges made by
Miller against the Seattle police de-
partment, during the progress of his
trial, started an agitation which has
not abated. Although the police de-
MED that Miller had been assaulted
with a bludgeon and knocked sense
less, it was admitted, however, that
he was confined in the black hole un-
til he was ready to confess. 1t was
Miller's contention that he would have
confessed to anything to escape the
torture of the police.
Misconduct Of Jury.
In the Miller decision, which was
handed down Friday, the supreme
court emphatically condemns the
third degree" as means of getting
evidence. The two chief points upon
which the conviction was set aside
were the alleged confessions of Miller
and his accomplice Willis Taylor, OBJ
tanned after Miller had been kept in
the black hole nearly week and after
Taylor had been in Jail three months,
and the misconduct of the jury in Wis.
iting the private room of Capt. of De.
tectives Charles Tenant.
Under his own admission, the court
found that Prosecuting Attorney
George F. Vanderveer visited Miller
in Jail upon several occasions and
made threat or a yelled threat prior
to obtaining the alleged confession.
The court took judicial notice of the
fact that Miller was kept in the black
hole and quotes the testimony of the
police that this means was frequently
employed to force prisoners to tell
things the police wanted to know
whether true or not.
Rights Invaded.
This, the decision says, plainly in
dicates the fact that the sacred rights
of citizenship had been invaded by Off
GERS of the law"
The court says, neither policemen,
detectives nor jailors have inquisitor-
ial powers" The decision says that
the methods of the Spanish inquisition,
with dungeon and bludgeon have
passed and that IAN attempt to revive
them, even in a mild form, ought to
call forth the execration of the peo-
ple."
During his trial in Seattle, Miller,
who knows a smattering of law, de-
Tended himself. Subsequently he en-
gagged the services of an attorney who,
at the second trial, obtained change
of venue to Tacoma. Miller testified
that he had been kept in the black
hole until he was nearly crazed and
that he had been brutally assaulted by
Capt. Tenant, knocked senseless with
a club and was revived by Tenants
bulldog licking the blood from his face
Visited Dark Cell.
The jury which tried Miller in Sc
attle visited the city jail to see the
dark cell and to investigate the story
told by Miller. While at police head
quarters, the jury, at the invitation OF
Tenant, visited his private office where
the assault upon Miller was alleged to
have occurred. While in the office
Tenant explained that the only blud-
geon which he had was a lead pencil
and made other statements concern
ing the case which the supreme court
holds were designed to discredit sworn
testimony. The misconduct on the part
Of the jury is one reason why the con-
viction is set aside.
Four More Charges.
Miller was also convicted at the Ia
coma trial. but sentence was never
pronounced. There are four additional
charges Of burglary hanging over him,
which. however, according to his at
torney. are based largely upon the al
legged confessions testified to by Ten
nant and Vanderveer, and upon the
testimony OF willis Taylor. Attorney
Glasgow believes that II the testimony
Of these witnesses is not admitted.
there will be nothing to hold Miller.
Raspberries Now Ripe.