Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-08-09
THE DAILY CAPITAL JOURNAL i,
Salem whose circulation guaranteed y n
Audit Bureau O. Circuaons
CONTEMPT FOR Law TAUGHT BY COURTS

Last FRIDAY the divorced wife Of John Longer De
Saues shot and killed her ex-husband at his home IN
New York city. Now the ableSt attorneys money can
employ are busy preparing sort Of defense for her.
They are preparing to give her fair trial. such as
she is entitled to under the constitutions chance to nave
her witnesses heard and full and fair showing OF ne
defense presented to the jury That not what criminal
lawyers for. They instead Iaciang tner brains
for some kind of defense that will deceive the jury,
bamboozle the court and get the women Tree ana u-
punished for her crime Yesterday the dispatches gave
hint of what they have arranged the best course to
defeat justice and make the criminal laws OF the states
of the union still ridiculous They are gong to set
up that her mind unbalanced by the heat tha sne at
one time suffered from sunstroke and that she was IRE
Sponsibe She did not appear unbalanced When sne pre-
pared in advance to do murder She was cool and col
lected in jail when she admitted the killing and SAID she
was glad of it. Her lawyers know she is perfectly sane
and the defense they preparing is simply one they
think best qualified to secure her acquttal.
Up in Idaho several years ago William Haywood was
tried for the murder of governor Seunenberg lie was
acquitted despite the fact that most of those who kept
in touch with the evidence firmly convinced OF ms
guilt and that the verdict Of the jury was the result OF
the shrewdness of his lawyers. The two cases nave
nothing in common other than they show the utter IN
ability of American courts to deal with crime 1t should
be dealt with
1t is such cases as these the miscarriage of justice in
the one as most people believe and in the other the pre-
paraton to cause another just such result which ten
chances to one will succeed that has caused the conditions
confronting the country. Criminals know that II
they caught they have at least ten chances to one OF
weak minded lot of jurymen, court wrapped up IN
precedent and array of attorneys hired for their ability
to sway jury by their eoquence OF ange judge IN the
intricaces Of so called American law and criminal
practice.
No one knows this better than the class now known
as W. VS. for their leaders students of the history
of criminal procedure, and they advised by able
attorneys.
At Butte there is abundant evidence Of this There
following the ynchng of Little there were dire threats
of revenge Threats that members Of the order from all
parts of the country would go to Butte and take the law
into their hands, in order to get revenge because
other persons had done the same thing and hanged
one of their worthless gang These threats suddenly
ceased and the word sent out not to make any
demonstrations for fear martial law would be declared
That was what stopped their threats and their wild talk
of revenge. They knew, BETTER that with martial
law in force there would be criminal attorneys and
befudded judges to help them entange the minds OF the
jury and make techncaties and precedents take the
place of facts There would instead be examination
of the witnesses the defendant would be given chance
to tell his story and if he innocent he would be dis
charged but if guilty he would face firing squad and
pay the penalty of his crimes.
So we can hark back to just such Haywoods,
such as Laura D. Fairs for the killing of Crittenden to
thousands of other murderers who set free in viola
ton of the oaths of jurors and in utter disregard of the
law and there find the present contempt for the law Our
legal ethics wrong since they ndorse the attorneys
in doing anything to clear their client instead of seeing
that he has fair trial. which is all the law allows them