Weekly journal-miner., 1915-03-24

the opportunity to select from a com-
 plete panel upon voir dire, jurors who
 are absolutely unbiased, unprcjudiccd
 and entirely open upon any matter.
 Discusses Liquor Cases.
 These so-called liquor cases, when
 they are before the court, must be
 treated ;n exactly the same manner as any other case Jurors selected
 upon voir dire must be absolutely un-
 prejudiced, open-minded, fair-minded
 men. Neither the state nor the de-
 fendant has any right, in any case,
 to have any man in the jury-boX
 among the twelve men, who is in
 any way biased or prejudiced. This happens to be the first of these liq-
 uor cases that has come before the
 court. In all criminal cases the de-
 fendant has the choicesof two pleas.
 He. has the privilege of making other
 pleas, but there are two well known
 pleas, one of guilty and the other of
 not guilty. In case of a plea of
 guilty, the court has the right to take
 into consideration that the defendant | has saved the county the time and
 expense of jury trial and to consid-
 CT that in imposing sentence; the
 court has a perfect right, under the
 statutes, to suspend sentence in any
 case either after plea of guilty, or
 upon plea of not guilty and con
 viction, providing the court considers
 that the circumstances warrant it.
 After a defendant pleads not guilty, places himself upon the county and is found guilty by a jury, the court must take that into consideration, i'll imposing sentence. A most remark able circumstance arose during the
 first trial of this case, which I think
 should consider. Mir. Bracken
 states to me that this is his first eX- pericnce with the criminal laws, and he has assured me it will be his last. It seems that at the preliminary hear ing in this case, Mr. Bracken made statement not under oath, and when he came on the witness-stand in the first trial of this case, he leaned over to me, when the Clerk asked him to be sworn, and asked me if he must be sworn. 1 did not completely un- derstand the purport of his question as l do now. If 1 had understood it 1 would have excused the jury and made a statement to him to this ef- feet, that no defendant in any crim- inal case is required to go on the stand in his own behalf. If he does | go on the stand he must be sworn . and he becomes subject then to all . the rules governing the testimony of witnesses generally. If Mir. Bracken had fully appreciated that l do not think he would have been a witness in the case, but, after going on the stand, the die was cast
 Amendment Proves a Handicap.
 l fully appreciate in this particular case, which may apply to number of cases generally, that the so-called prohibition amendment to the Consti- tuition of Arizona, went into effect very suddenly, and, that its provisions are very drastic. On the 1st day of January, 1915, probably not less than fifty or sixty thousand dollars worth 0f, liquor was on hand in Yavapai which men in the liquor busi- . ness had been unable to dispose of; and down to the lst day of January their business was just as lawful as any other business, in fact you may say, more lawful than many other businesses, because they were pro -ccted by licenses which were given hem by three different branches of he government, the United States, he state and the county. They were to the revenue of these branches of government 1 and paid part of the expenses of gov ( Liquor men undoubtedly . ookcd upon the effect of the amend ncnt on the 1st day of January, 1915, V Is severe hardship. It was the / opinion of many of them and the C opinion of their counsel that the law . vas not operative without legislation, C md hope was extended to them at : hat time that some relief would be | granted or that the legislature might ! make some provision to allow them O continue in business for short 2 inc, at least. These questions have s LOW all been determined by the courts V md, so far as that amendment is con Y erncd. it is at this time just as ef- t cctivc as any other law upon our il tatute books o
 This cause arose on the 2lst day # January, 1915, during this period s