Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-05-06
IurN EixinQ

A member of the legislature from
one of the lower counties in Georgia
has given notice that he will intro
5uce a bill this summer looking 10
Jury fixing. 1t is high time such
measure of reform was introduced and
fully considered. We have an end
less succession of courts, endless ht1-
CATION, and jurymen should be legally
and carefully selected, OF we should
omit juries and get a chancery judge
to render decisions. There is unlimlt-
ed opportunity for spite and prejudice,
as well as injustice, as the matter now
stands. and people are losing all re-
spect for doubtful methods
gentleman who has lived in Bar
tow county for a number of years,
with large business interests and emf
nent for his intelligence, told me mis-
name had never been found in the jury
box at all. He said it had been estl-
mated that fifteen hundred men of up
right character and intelligence were in
the same plight, and that l could see
for myself if l would scan the lists
of selected juries that were printed in
the public gazettes. He said a few
men had been continually drawn out
and that we had two sets who served
asternatively, with very little varia-
tion, and with remarkable luck as to
frequent selection.
1 am going to scan the lists here
after, and will report further, God
willing. The law is pungent and en-
phatic as to our legal mode of get
ting iurymen, and every person who
is called into court to seek justice or
defend themselves from bad men and
injustice should be made to feel that
they have an equal chance with the
other man in the matter of a jury, and
II the Jury fixer" has got in it's
work, there should be some way to
catch up with it, and then we should
fight shy of electing such people in
the near future.
Hon. A. II. Stephens often discussed
the Importance of honest court trials
and clean judiciary. He said they
were the hope of the country, and
when they failed everything else would
give way in free government.
When suspicion and distrust enters
there can be no confidence in the way
that trials are conducted, and it will de-
stroy progress as well as confidence.
A trial that has been decided by a
packed jury will forever carry the stain
of corruption i'm its results, and IL they
are given time enough it will break down
with its final doom of fraud.
There is too much looseness in the Sc
lection of jurymen. Every man who
serves on a jury which is to decide on
the personal liberty or the property
rights of others should be a man of in
telligence as well as upright character,
and his name should be drawn from the
jury box in a legal way, and that would
put a. check on the particular class OF
people who hang about the court house
to get caught" on the jury. Complaints
are general in many places as to the
privileges that are granted to sucE push
ers in, because they are usually as ig-
norant as they are notorious brawlers
and intent on getting a finger and some
money in the mess. 1 have known men
to be caught on the jury in this county
to decide important matters in court
when they not only could not read and
write, but were evidently intent on spite
and prejudice in making a verdict. Their
ignorance displayed itself in that particu-
lar way.
3. This catching business is a serious
thing and all courts should close when
they feel obliged to run with such caught
ups as those who are known to be (by
those familiar with existing conditions).
not only a menace to civil liberty. but
that no mans name shall go in the jury
box without some knowledge as to his
upright and intelligent reputation, and II
is not just or fair or honest that men
who are grossly deficient should be