Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1868 — HEALY & JAMES. EDITORS. [ARTICLE]

HEALY & JAMES. EDITORS.

Publishing Evidence in Criminal Cases. Sometime last September & man named Young, and liis wife, were murdered at Cold Springs near Indianapolis, in broad The evidence before the coroner’s jury pointed to two m#n and a/ woman as the guilty parties, They Wire arrested on.the coroner’s warrant and tin indictment w»s found against them by the grand jury, On Monday of imdt week the prisoners t weto brought beforo th e criminal court of Indianapolis—- * Judge Chapman occupying the bench—and demjdod a separate trial. The woman—Mrs, was arraigned, when her counsel made a motion that the papers of the Stitt® be prohibited from publishing tho evidence. The Court granted the order. The only reason the Court had fo r making the order was, that the publication of tbe testimony in tho case of one of the prisoners would make it impossible to obtain an unbiassed jury in the other cases, as the evidence is nbont tlic same in each. Of tbe three daily papers pub* Jished at Indianapolis, the Journal and the Sentinel very properly disregarded the order and published the proceedings of the court. The court issued an attachment for the reporters, had them arrested and fined each in the sum of twenty-five dollars; .and arrested the editors of the papers. They appeared with their oounsel, Hon. J. W.' Gordon and Hon. S. E. Perkins, determined to resist, whereupon the counsel for the defendant withdrew' his motion for the order prohibiting the reports and his IJonor, the Judge, rescinded it. The Judge took oooasion, wh?n he rescinded the order, to state that the attachment for contempt, which had already issued, would be passed over until the court could find time to take it up, and so the editors were permitted to go at large with the understanding that the court would make a final disposition of their easdb as soon as time could be found to do so. The right to a public trial is giyOn by our Constitution and laws to evtfry person prosecuted our courts, either on criminal charges or in civil cases, and we can not see wherein a trial could be public if tbe court in pnphih; itedjwthe pubUcatibfi of eviocnce; for Ii the court can do this—can close up this one channel of publicity—it might with equal propriety, and for the same reason, close all others, by prohibiting any person conversing with his neighbor about the trial, nnd by locking the doors of the court-room to all except its officers and attorneys. The only argument of the Judge in jtvstifica-= tion of his course is that it is necessary to keep the public in ignorance of the testimony in order to obtain a jury sufficiently uninformed to try the other cases. We believe the course of the Judge to have been wholly vVrong, and think the thanks of the public are due tbe Journal and the Sentinel for their manly action in resisting tho arbitrary exactions of the court. We notice in the last week’s issue of tho Rensselaer Union an article pitching into Hon, Will Oumback, with a vim worthy of a better cause. We are unable to see the reaspn for this splter ful attack on the part of the Union. Hope our neighbors haven’t been disappointed in getting any promises of favors from Mr. Cumback, or “nothin?” The simple fact that they may have preferred some other man for the position of U. 8. Senator should certainly be no excuse for a paper to ‘ wade” into a gentleman as fiercely as does the Union into Mr. Cumback.—[ Winamac Republican, Our “spiteful attack” ou Mr. Cumback consists in saying that he is an untried man, and that his friends seem determined to have him elected tq th® XJ. S. Sonato by bnilying tbe Legislature—stating that the convention at Indianapolis last 'winter promised Mr. Cumback. that he should be U. S. Senator if he would give the strength of his name to the ticket and devote himself to the canva*3, Mr, Cumuack’s frieqdtj <U not seem to rely so much on his ability a$ they do on this bargain at tbe eonveptjon, and we say tl)at the Legislature, to show that they cannot be bought aqd sold, should rebuke those who attempt it. So far frqfn being disappointed in not getting promises from Mr. Cum-

back, we have never asked him or any other publio man for favors and don’t expect to, and for this very reason aro at liberty to speak our conviotions without bias. CAB our contemporary say ns UWoh?