Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 150, 28 June 1894 — Hawaiian Juries. [ARTICLE]

Hawaiian Juries.

lt ia pleasing to see tbat there Ī3 an inclination among tbe best members of the constitotional convention to strike ont Article 7 whieh in its present shape wonld gire a legislature power to inrest j lue government with the right of appeal in criminal cases. To nnr pnrprise the Advtrti*er has abandoned ils former attitude in this *natter, and this moruing joins Ihe Hol.OMPA in an opposition to tbe dangerons and nefarions c!anse. At the same t'me. our i tnorning conteraporar}' takes oe- ! casion to attack the liawaiian jr,ries and to throw ont innueudoes and insinuations against the integrity and iropartialitv of a Hawaiian jurv, more especially 1 in political cases. The cry is old, | and it is getting very stale. It i doesn’t eome with very good graoe from a paper whieh repre- i sentsthemen whohaveconstituted j certain “white” juries who bave put tfcemselves on reconl as nid- j ing nnd abetting the raisc>trriage of justice in political oases. Who has forgotten the breach of I promise case instit«ted by an | adventnress without oharacter | R"ainst W. M. Gibson? Has anv O cative jury ever put theraselves on record iu such a contemptib!e manner? They have acqnitted tbeir countrvmen. who were j cbarged with conspiracy ngHinst j lbe govornraent, becHUse some of Iho jurymen s} T mpathized with the | ideas of the oonspirators, and j £Otne knew that the men,befora| Uio court were only tools in the hands of the very crowd who now condemu the native junes and deride their verdicts. Nobody was hurtby the ucquittal ofthose political enmmal». But tbe good name of the country. the faith of tbe people in the justico of onr cOurts received a blow from whieh they never have recovered nfter tbe venlict in the Gibson ; case. Hore was a failen politieian, a man “downed,” a states man «gainst whom the most bitter and unrelenting oppoailiou bad been carried on found guilty cf a breach ef proraise to marrya womau of whom nothing was koown, of no standing in this cominunity.and loallappe irances «nd «ccording to evidence a loose «dventurers And he, a mau who had passevl the three scores and 1 lan, a man with a danghter and j grandohildrep clinging to his! knees, The less the Adveriiaer j gang talk abont injnstice of l Hawaiian jnries in polilieal cases, Ihe better it will be for the«oselves | «nd lor the honor of our courts. Cverv man on that jnrv* has many a time regretted the verdict whieh later on w*s proved io be nnjnst and inexcusable. And we bave seen podtical cases before 8oroe of onr iramaculato jndges in whom the AdreriUer desires to | vest the power of jodge and jnry. It ian’i so very long ago when a eeiiain Jndge Dole, who no* ia Ihe King of the repnblic sat as judge in the case of thc government vs V. V, Ashford, «nd others charged with trea»on. Will ihe Adverti»er or any other party today declare that the di«-

cbarge o{ Asbford and the eommittal of Wileoi, was jnst or jnstifiable by the evidence ? No, und no agitin. It was tbe whiie jndge saving the white man either from svrop«th\' or frora fear, but it was not a jnst verdict of an bonest judge. It is not worth the while to rake up these casos. perhaps we all sympatbized with V. V. Ashford. He bas publicly admitted that the cbarge ag>iinst him was true, :*ii d that he was gniltv as charged, bnt not a word has ever been said aguinst the l “honorable” jndge who helf>ed him out of the scrape. It is not long ago when tbe prosecnting officers in open court refused to i go on with the foreign criminal cases on the calender, becanse, ; they claimed, they eouhl not obtain justice before the foreign jniy. And on that jury, we noticed the nuraes of several of tlie pillars of theChurch, and most of the Adverliser backers. . It Ls useless for the Adverli*er to cast odinm on theHawaiian jury. Those who live in glass houses shonld not throw stones. The ; jmy systera ean uever be abandoned here and justioe be done. The coramunity is too ■ smHll and wo know eaeh othertoo i well, friendly or otherwise, to find it possiblt to leavo our cases, | our liberty «nd onr rights iu the | bands of j<idg>*s with whom we play poker, eat chowder, go to lodge, to cliurch or peep at sp<>oning in the Kahnkn waters. I The aboIishment of the raixed i ; juries would prove a most dangerI ous step f«>r the fore ; gners. Race 1 feeiiug would have full swingand the ehaneea are that the white raan wonkl eome out at the small end of the born. Whatever is to hapjien liere, it Ls better to go : s!ow, to renieiiiber that this i oooutry is yet iu its infancy aud I to avoid too radical changes.