The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1914-11-27
FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 27. 1914.
Duties Of Pellet Jurors
JUDGE breIz Tells q Pike Co Jury
q few Plain Truths.

uuVY0 ul6'L lulu iho w ou' y
q few Plain Truths.
If what | am about to say to
you has in it a sting, assure
you it is not in the slightest de
gree intended for any one of you
on either jury who has honestly
tried to reach d verdict in these
cases. | have kept you together
all this time, not for the purpose
of furnishing you or any one Of
you, but hoping you would real.
lie the Importance of the place
each of you holds and the duty
each of you owes to the public
and your own homes, and that
you would reach some kind of d
verdict, and to impress upon your
minds and the public what little
aid a jury that gets crossWlse
and fails &c agree upon p verdict
is to the court in the dispatch OF
public business and how harmful
such juries are to those VINO,
whether from their own acts or
the acts of others get into law
suits.
You ought to be and the law
intends that you should be a
help to the court in disposing OF
the business instead Of a hinder
ance. It seems to me that in
these, the simplest of simple
cases, you could have reached a
verdict, at least In a reasonable
time. and | fear you have been
trying somebody else rather than
the defendant In these cases.
You would have done less harm
to return a verdict In these
cases even though some Of you
might have thought it was not
right, than to fail to reach an
agreement in these little, simple
cases. You could h9vo hart no
body very much, no "a what
: kind of a verdict you re.d ned.
Your failure to agree IS the
swiftest and surest way to edu-
cate the public to distrust court
proceedings ard have a dread
for a trial in any court. They
learn to believe that a trial in
court is to do somebody an in
jury or take from them their
property without right or war.
rant of law. rather than to do
Justice between the parties. 1t
is the fore-runner to mob law
and anarchy. If a man believes
he cannot get his case decided
after trial in court, he then Is
apt to get desperate and either
settle it by force or sacrifice his
rights and lose his property
rather than go to court where
the chances are he will never get
his case decided unless by chance
at the end of several trials and
after he has been ruined financi-
ally. some jury will chance to
bring in a verdict.
Stubborn abstinence is no cred
it to a man, and if he persists in
it, he will soon prove to be a
dangerous citizen. 1t is an APP
paling fact that within less than
two yeas, just passed, there has
been nine juries, including your
selves, that have reported to the
court that they could not agree
and the court was obliged to dis
charge them without a verdict.
There ought not have been that
many in that number of years
And, strange to say, with one or
two exceptions, the smallest Of
small cases that could and should
have been decided in a few min
utes.
The effect of hung juries is to
pile UP costs almost without lin.
it, and, in some of these cases,
the effect on the parties has
been to effectually break them
I'D and others TO embarrass them
financially for life, maybe. Is it
any wonder men dread to go in
to court and come to distrust
court proceedings. 1t is the duty
of a jury, when called to try a
ase. to patiently listen to the
evidence and the law and prompt
ly decide the cases giving to each
litigant what is justly due him or
what he rightfully deserves as
near as human judgment with its
frailties can give.
In view Of what has taken
place this week, do you wonder
at courts letting jurles 90 home
- .xo.x 49, ~a oc 1opn nc m CON