Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1913-06-02
NELSON FREED
BY SUPREME
COURT
UNANIMOUS OPINION DISCHARGES
KANSAS CITY PUBLISHER ON
TECHNICALLY, ALTHOUGH ARTl=
Gle WAS HIGHLY CONTEMPTUOUS
TRIAL JUDGE WROTE
OPINION BEFOREHAND

jefferson City. Mo, June 2.-Tha
Missouri supreme court today dis.
charged VIM. r. Nelson, owner and
editor of the Kansas City Star from
contempt of the Jackson county Cir
cult court. The decision of the SUI
preme court was unanimous.
The supreme court held the article
published in the star, contempuous,
but ordered Mr. Nelson discharged
from contempt solely on the ground
that Circuit Judge Guthrie prepared
his opinion the night before the trial
for contempt.
Judge Woodson, who wrote the
opinion held that Mr.. Nelson was de-
prived of his rights by Judge Guthrie
and condemned without the taking of
testimony at a hearing on the part OF
the accused. He also found that
Judge Guthrie, in preparing his find
ings the night before Mr.. Nelson was
hailed into court violated plain
and fundamental rule OF right and
sought to deprive the prisoner Of his
rights without process of law.
The court further said:
1--WE are clearly of the opinion that
the publication was not literally nor
substantially true, but is highly con-
temptuous to both the court and the
Judge thereof. The principal question
presented by this record is: Was the
publication of the article contempt
uous of said court, and of the judge
presiding therein?
1--WE are unanimously of the opin-
ion that this question must be an
swered in the affirmative, and Judging
from the mode Of trial pursued by
counsel for the petitioner, (Col Mel
SOM they must have entertained the
same conviction, for they were un-
willing to let the article speak for it
self, but introduced much evidence
FOR the purpose OF showing that no
contempt was in fact intended, not
withstanding its scandalous charges.
Mr.. Nelson was sentenced to i'm
prisonment of one day in the county
Jail OH February / last, by Judge 10.
seph w. Guthrie, of jackson, who
based his action on the publication in
MIR Nelson's paper of an article which
said that Judge Guthrie had refused
tc dismiss divorce suit filed IN his
court until the parties to it, who had
settled it out of court and asked dis
missal, had paid their attorneys fees.
Incarceration was prevented by
writ of habeas corpus. The case was
taken to the Kansas City court of APP
peals and thence to the Missouri SUI
preme court.
Judge Woodson, celebrating on the
trial of Mr.. Nelson for contempt, call
Cd it pretended hearing"
Il use the words pretended hearing
advsedly,'' says the opinion, because
no disinterested an unbiased mind can
come to any other conclusion from
reading the rocrd, but that the real
trial took place on the night Of JAN
uary 81, and that the proceedings in
the court the next morning were solely
for the purpose of breathing life and
validity into the unquickened and void
Judgment written the night before"
Concerning the attempt to show
that no contempt was intended in the
publication of the article in the Star.
a point sustained by the commission
or, C. c. Grow, in his report, Judge
Woodson said: This is where our
commissioner erred, for the reason
that the meaning Of the publication
was clear upon its face"