Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1883 — On the Mercy of the Court. [ARTICLE]

On the Mercy of the Court.

McCollj pleads Guilty and gets Two Teal's la Mlcblfran City* \ OTHER CIRCUIT COURT MATTERS. The June term of the Jasper Circuit Court opened Monday, his Honor Judge Peter H. Ward presiding. Monday and a large part of Tuesday was devoted mainly to probate and other matters not requiring a jury. A great deal of business was disposed of, but the most of it was ot a nature to bo of but little general interest. GAVE HIMSELF AWAY. The justice mill, on Tuesday, ground out something as nearly in tho nature of a big joke as often happens with that solemn institution: The law, as we all know, will not compel a man to criminate himself, but if he wishes to give himself away, ot his own volition, he will not be denied the privilege. For instance: John Zimmer, of Carpenter township, was taken before the grand jury, on Tuesday, and interrogated for evidence upon which to base an indictment against a saloon keeper. Zimmer, with the design, apparently, of screening tho saloon keeper, informed the jury that on a certain occasion he himself had bought and given to a minor a glass of liquor. A word to the wise was sufficient, and the grand jury at once prepared an indictment against Zimmer for giving liquor to a minor. Ho was immediately taken before tho circuit court, then in session, when he entered a plea of “guilty” and was fined in the sum of twenty dollars and costs, the lightest penalty the law allows for the charge. The whole operation, Indictment, appearance before the court, and the pronouncing of sentence occupied but a few minutes of time. On the same day, Tuesday, James McColly, tho herse thief, having been indicted by the grand jury, came into court, and entered a plea of guilty, and threw himself upon the mercy of the court. On Wednesday afternoon he was seam brought into court for sentence. F. W. Babcock and Acting Prosecutor Frazer both spoke a few words in favor of a light sentence, on tho grounds of the youth of the prisoner and his highly respectable' connections. The court then sentenced him to two years in the State prison, North, to pay a fine of five dollars and costs and to bo disfranchised from voting or holding office for the term of two years.