Galloway Trial of John H. Surratt

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4835-4262-1
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
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E-Book, Englisch, 2832 Seiten

Trial of John H. Surratt for the murder of Abraham Lincoln.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Galloway, James

Leseproben

Monday, June 10, 1867
Page 3

June 10, 1867
Jury Panel Challenged

TRIAL.

June 10, 1867.

The court was opened at 10 o’clock. Present: the district attorney, E. C. Carrington, esq., his assistant, N. Wilson, esq., and associate counsel, Messrs. Edwards Pierrepont and A. G. Riddle, for the United States, and the prisoner and his counsel, Messrs. Joseph H. Bradley, R. T. Merrick, and Joseph H. Bradley, junior.

The Court said: Gentlemen, this is the day assigned for the trial of John H. Surratt, indicted for the murder of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States. Are you ready to proceed?

Mr. Bradley. The prisoner is ready, sir, and has been from the first.

The Court. Are you ready, Mr. Carrington?

The District Attorney. If your honor please, I am happy to be able to announce that the government is ready to proceed with the trial. Before we proceed, however, sir, to empanel a jury, we desire to submit a motion to the court, which motion we have reduced to writing. With the permission of the court I will now proceed to read it to your honor. It is as follows:

In the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. United States vs. John H. Surratt. Indictment, murder.

And now, at this day, to wit, on the 10th day of June, A. D. 1867, come the United States and the said John H. Surratt, by their respective attorneys; and the jurors of the jury empanelled and summoned also come; and hereupon the said United States, by their attorney, challenge the array of the said panel, because he saith that the said jurors comprising said panel were not drawn according to law, and that the names from which said jurors were drawn were not selected according to law; wherefore he prays judgment, and that the said panel may be quashed.

The District Attorney. This motion, if your honor please, is sustained by an affidavit which I hold in my hand, and which, with the permission of your honor, I will now proceed to read. We think that it will be found unnecessary, after this affidavit has been read, to introduce any oral testimony.

The affidavit was then read as follows:

District of Columbia, County of Washington to wit:

Be it remembered that on this seventh day of June, A. D. 1867, before the subscriber, a justice of the peace in and for the county aforesaid, in the District aforesaid, personally appeared Samuel Douglass, who, being first duly sworn, deposes and says, that in the months of January and February, A. D. 1867, he was register of Washington city, in the District aforesaid; that about the first of February in said year, this affiant deposited in the box required to be kept in the office of the clerk of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, four hundred names, (each name being written on a separate piece of paper, and each paper being carefully rolled and tied,) as a part of the names from which jurors were to be selected under the provisions of the act of Congress of June 16, 1862; that at the same time the clerk of the levy court deposited forty names, and the clerk of Georgetown deposited eighty names in said jury box; that the names deposited by this official were selected by him partly from the poll lists of Washington city and partly from the names of citizens who he thought well qualified to serve as jurymen; that the names of the persons so selected by this affiant as register were not communicated by him to the clerk of Georgetown or the clerk of the levy court, nor did they at any time know the names selected by this affiant, nor did this affiant know at any time the names of those selected by the said clerk of Georgetown, nor by the clerk of the levy court; that the names having been deposited as aforesaid, the box was returned to the clerk of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, and by said clerk sealed, as this affiant believes, in the presence of this affiant; that the petit jurors for the March term of the criminal court, 1867, were selected or drawn from the names deposited in said box on said first day of February, and were drawn by the clerk of Georgetown, as this affiant recollects and believes; that the names were deposited in the manner hereinbefore stated and in no other way, and that, if it appears that any of the names for Washington city, deposited as aforesaid, and in the handwriting of any person, whether this affiant or his clerk, then the same were deposited without the knowledge or consent of this affiant; and further, this affiant says that the paper or papers containing the names of those whose names were written on said four hundred pieces of paper and deposited as aforesaid, he cannot now find, although he has made diligent search for the same.

SAMUEL E. DOUGLASS.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this seventh day of June, 1867.

CHAS. WALTER, J. P.

The Court. Mr. Carrington, will you be kind enough to read that part of the affidavit which speaks of the handwriting of the affiant?

Mr. Carrington then read as follows:

“That the names were deposited in the manner as hereinbefore stated, and in no other way, and if it appears that any of the names for Washington city, deposited as aforesaid, are in the handwriting of any person other than this affiant or his clerk, then the same were deposited without the knowledge or consent of this affiant.”

The Court. Are there any of those names which are not in the handwriting of Mr. Douglass?

The District Attorney. Perhaps it is better that I should proceed at once to state to your honor the points upon which we rely, and which we think will satisfy the court that the law has not been complied with—

Mr. Pierrepont. In any respect.

The District Attorney. And that a verdict rendered by this jury would be entirely illegal. Feeling that it would be idle to proceed to trial with the present panel, we have considered it our duty to present this point to the court, and with your honor’s permission, will lay before you the law bearing on the subject.

I will read first, sir, those sections of the act of June 16, 1862, (12 Statutes at Large, p. 428,) which we regard as necessary to elucidate the propositions which we propose to submit, and will then state, more clearly than I have done, the objections which we make. The act is entitled “An act providing for the selection of jurors to serve in the several courts of the District of Columbia.”

Mr. Carrington then read as follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be the duty of the register of Washington city, and of the respective clerks of the city of Georgetown and the levy court of Washington county, in the District of Columbia, within one month after the passage of this act, and on or before the first day of February in each year thereafter, to make a list of such of the white male citizens, tax-payers, residing within their respective jurisdictions, as they shall judge best qualified to serve as jurors in the courts of the said District, in which lists may be included, in the discretion of the officer making the same, the names of such qualified persons as were on the list of the previous year, but did not serve as jurors, and the lists thus made by the register and clerks aforesaid shall be kept by them, respectively, and be delivered over to their successors in office.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the officers aforesaid shall select from the list of the register of Washington city, the names of four hundred persons; from that of the clerk of Georgetown, eighty persons, and from that of the clerk of the levy court, forty persons, which proportion, after the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three, may be varied from year to year according to the increase or decrease of population in the respective jurisdictions, by order of the judges of the circuit court of Washington county.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the mayors of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, all judicial officers, salaried officers of the government of the United States, commissioners of police, and those connected with the police or fire department, counsellors and attorneys at law, ministers of the gospel and priests of every denomination, practicing physicians and surgeons, keepers of hospitals, asylums, almshouses, or other charitable institutions created by or under the laws relating to the District of Columbia, captains and masters and other persons employed on vessels navigating the waters of said District, and keepers of public ferries, shall be exempt from jury duty, and their names shall not be placed on the list aforesaid.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the names selected from said lists shall be written on separate and similar pieces of paper, which shall be so folded or rolled up that the names cannot be seen, and placed in a box, to be provided by the register and clerks aforesaid; which box shall be sealed, and after being thoroughly shaken, shall be delivered to the clerk of the circuit court of Washington county for safe keeping.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the said register and clerks, and the clerk of the circuit court, shall, at least ten days before the commencement of each term of the circuit court, or of the criminal court, meet at the City Hall in Washington city, and then and there the clerk of the circuit court shall publicly break the seal of said box, and proceed to draw therefrom the names of so many persons as are required; and if the jury about to be drawn...