Prohibition and Trial by Jury

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 29, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 50.

Prohibition and Trial by Jury

JUDGE JULES E. ALFORD, in a ruling at Mobile, Alabama, declared that portion of the celebrated Fuller prohibition law denying a defendant the right of a trial by jury is unconstitutional. He said, in his opinion, that section 11 of the Alabama constitution stated that the right of trial by jury must remain inviolate, and that the Fuller bill was in direct conflict with this. Twenty cases of violation of the prohibition law were on the above decision sent to a higher court for trial by jury. The prohibitionists, through the state’s attorney-general, filed a petition in the city court asking for a mandamus against Judge Alford to compel him to try the cases and render judgment.—Detroit News Tribune.