Year: 1873

into the box as usual, Judge smith
asked for tho reading of the verdict
in the case of the State agt. Singleterry. lie
then directed the Sheriff to poll the jury,
after which he asked if any juror dissented
from the verdict. No dissenting voice was
heard; but this did not satisfy the Judge.
There were coored jurors on the panel, and
his Honor took special occasion to ask them
il they had agreed in the hndlng, adding
" If there are any who do not agree to it, let
{" them leave their seats, or stand up" Then
two of the cOl0red jurors came forward, no
doubt being confused by the proceedings OF
the court. One of them said that he did not
fuIlv agree with the verdict, as he thought
" the defendant should be charged something"
"You mean, do you," said the Judge that
"be should be fined ~ Yes, that was what
the Intelligent Juror meant. The other juror
said that, after thinking over the matter, he
too had concluded not to acquiesce in the
verdict.


Now, it is evident that all this interrogation
of the jury was extra judicial, and just as
illegal as possible. There are plenty of in
stances of it in the State Trials over which
Judge Jeffreys presided; but this kind of pro-
ceeding has never been common IN American
Courts. Nevertheless, we are not yet at the
end of the matter. The Judge having misled
two iurors into recalling their verdict, forth
with dismissed the remaining ten and ordered
| the Sheriff never again to summon them 10
serve as Jurors in his COurt-a direction which
he had no legal right to give and which the
! Sheriff will have no legal right to follow. The
whole matter appears to be a mess and a
middle if not something worse. We are
not surprised to find jurors thus treated
publishing an appeal to the public.
| They say that the jury was composed of eight
white and four cOlOred members, and that the
| Juror who appeared to hesitate In court has
| now come back to his old opinion and has
| signed their card One of the jurors does not
| sign for the reason that the Judge has locked
him up "for the part he bore in this dis
"agreeable proceedngn-that is, for express
ing his mind about the dOings Of the Court.


Altogether, we conclude that the people of
Montgomery County would be just about as
well off without jurors as with ehem, and in
cline also to the belief that they would be de-
cdedly better off without ijudges-which isn't
a pleasant conclusion to come to. But upon
the. whole, we do not know that we have any
reason for vaunting ourselves. We do queer
|
find verdicts, even in this enlightened and
opulent city, in which the purity OF our
judicial tribunals is the only safeguard which
we possess of life and of property. The farce Of
the Tweed trial does MT make us proud either
of the human head or of the human heart as
exhibited in jury, either incapable OF making
I'D its mind or determined propensity not to
make it up, though the evidence IN the case
were as clear as MONDAY light. Coroners'
iuries. one might think, dealing as they do
with human hfe, which the law regards rs the
most sacred of human possessions, would or
should be free from folly and bias
and stupidity. Alas! these juries, charged
with the initiatOry proceedings in
the most important investigations, are some
times AS little entitled to respect as the same
officials were in the days when they were rid
iculcd by the matchless humor of Shakespeare.
1t is hard to read the verdict of the jury In
the Duryca inquest with equanlmity, or to
find any fault with the Alabama tribunals
after such an exposure of the incapaclty or
dishonesty of Our-Own. In case which most
people thought to be one of murder i'll the
first degree, and which very few people
thought to be anything less than aggravated
mansaughter, our wise COrOners jury gave in
a verdict which, if it was anything, was one OF
iustifiable homicide. Everybody is surprised, as
tonshed, shocked; but we have no security that
under the same circumstances and influences, the
next case of murder which cannot be very far
off, shall not be submitted to a similar incOm-
petent or corrupt tribunal. So far as juries
can help us, we may have such succession
of Tweeds and of municipal malappropriatiOns
that all our arithmetic will be pOwerless to
compute their amount. The simple fact is,
that although in clear case of guilt there
should be no doubt of o verdict in skeepng
with the testimony, yet experience teaches us
that the average juryman is to be no more
depended upon with certainty than tie aver
age voter who has been nurturedhn hot-bed
of political corruption. We shall have honest
jurors when we have an honest majority quite
In the ascendant and vigorously coercing the
dishonest minority. Juries will be like other
constituent parts of the body poitic-upright
and intelligent if they be so, aud otherwise if
they also are otherwise.


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POMEROYS ORDEAL.


1t is possible that after all Mr.. POmerOy