p. 8 | JURY BRIBING

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 8, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 10.

JURY BRIBING

“JUDGMENT is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter.” Isa. 59:14. In our day this condition of things is accentuated through the medium of jury bribing. An instance is given by a Chicago paper of recent date, in which a little girl was run over by one of the cars of the West Chicago Railway Company and had both her arms cut off. A damage suit was brought against the company, and a verdict in favor of the plaintiff was prevented by the bribing of two or three jurors through the instrumentality of the bailiff. The case was brought to the attention of the grand jury, and the following deliverance by that body brings to view a significant sign of the times:—

Outside Fleischmann's Bakery Waiting in the Cold for Bread.

“The grand jury has investigated various charges of bribery of jurors and finds that bribery has existed for some time in the courts of Cook County to an alarming extent. The conditions and practices of the courts have made the bribery of jurors a comparatively easy and safe practise. Sufficient evidence was adduced before the grand jury upon which indictments were returned in two cases of bribe giving and one case of offering a bribe. Evidence of other improper conduct of court bailiffs also came before the grand jury. The people have always had an abiding faith in the integrity of the courts. Suspicion has at times attached to the legislative and executive departments of government, but rarely has it happened that a judge or jury has been suspected of anything improper. In one case before the grand jury, wherein a jury was bribed, it appeared that the child plaintiff had lost her limbs and had become a helpless cripple for life. The great majority of the trial jury were in favor of awarding substantial damages because of the negligence of the defendant company in running a street-car at an unreasonable rate of speed in a populous part of the city. A minority, two of whom at least were purchased for the benefit of the street-car company defendant at a cost of $150, prevented a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, whereby she lost the only opportunity which she had of being compensated for the terrible injury which she had received. A failure of justice in such a case is simply anarchy, the prostitution of the courts, and a robbery, underhanded and despicable, for the benefit of a street-railroad company. With such instances as this, the grand jury has felt that too much prominence can not be given to this investigation and too much attention can not be paid to the subject of jury bribing by the people and by the men in position to check or prevent it.”

“The grand jury is satisfied that an organized system exists in the civil courts which has been used for the benefit of street-railroad companies. True, the responsible officers of a street-railroad company deny that money is advanced by the company for illegal purposes of any kind, yet the grand jury is loath to believe that any one, court bailiff or other person, has the interest of street-railroad companies so much at heart, or that there is a concert of mania among a number of individuals to contribute money for the purpose of debauching juries and robbing plaintiffs of their just rights of action.”

If the case referred to in the foregoing was an isolated one, or if Chicago was the only place where such things were happening, it would not be so bad. But every one knows that just such cruel bribery has become one of the alarming conditions of our times.

Outside the Schumann Cafe Handing Out Bread to the Hungry.