Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1907 — HARWOOD IS FREED. [ARTICLE]

HARWOOD IS FREED.

* MINER’S SECRETARY ACQUITTED BY IDAHO JURY. Jury t'onxidcr.'i—that Kvldeiioc Produced Did Not Connect Accused ' t ■ Man with Steunenberg Murder— I’ettiboue Case Reset for Trial. v, ~ William lb Ilaywood is free iu Boise, Idaho. After eighteen months’ imprisonment, closing with eleveu nerve racking weeks of legal inquisition, he walked out Sunday, aloue and elated, into the bright sunlight of, a still and drowsy Sabbath morning, acquitted of the charge of murdering Frank Steunenberg. His vindication came from the lips of twelve Idaho farmers, plain, blunt, uncultured men, representatives of the sturdy stock that is the backbone of this country, who simply were not convinced that the State had connected TTaywood, “by liis own acts and declarations,” to use the language of The court, with the murder of Frank Steunenberg—that's all. That was the verdict, and the how, and the why, and the wherefore of it. r The masterly logic of Senator Borah, the painstaking analysis of Prosecutor liawley, and the story of Harry Or : chard crumbled and withered away in the unemotional atmosphere of the room" where Tfie jurors for twenty-one hours minutely dissected, the evidence as they saw it. And their verdict was “Not guilty.” Judge’* Charite a Factor. The probability of a verdict of acquittal had been freely predicted since Judge Fremont Wood read bis charge, which was regarded as strongly favoring the defense iu its interpretation of the laws of conspiracy, circumstantial evidence, and the corroboration of an accomplice who confesses. A canvass of the jury immediately after they were discharged showed the accuracy of the prediction. Ten of the jurors declared that in their iru dividual opinion the instructions practieally forbade a verdict of guilty. The other two would not admit this view of the judge’s charge, but declared that they had found it impossible to believe 'that any legal connection of Haywood with the Steunenberg murder had been made. It was also freely predicted that in the event of Haywood's acquittal the State would abandon the prosecution of his associates, Charles H. Moyer, the president of the federation, and George A. Petti bone of Denver. Statements from counsel aud from Gov. Gooding, however, dispel this view of the situation. , - • " ' GovTfGpodißg declared with emphasis that the cases dgainst Moyer and Petti bone would be prosecuted as vigorously as had been that against Haywood. Senator Borah added to this that Pettibone would be put on trial early in October.

Conviction Slade Impossible. While counsel for the prosecution refused to discuss what factors they considered bore most strongly upon the jury’s decision to acquit Haywood, the consensus of opinion among lawyers who were not connected with the case is that the instructions made a conviction Impossible. There were sixty-five paragraphs in the charge, of which thirty-one dealt with the subject of reasonable doubt. There is no criticism of the statement of the law In any of the sections of the charge with perhaps one exception, but it seems to be the general opinion, and the talks with jurors agree with It, that the reiteration of those instructions which might be favorable to the defense conveyed the imm-ession to the jury that the court believed the verdict should be acquittel. This Is of a piece with the attitudo of the authorities and the prosecution throughout the trial. The desire to be absolutely fair to the defendant has amounted at times almost to an obsession. If there has been an leaning to one side or to the other It has been to that of the defense, and that attitudo Is maintained even yet. There is almost no criticism of the result amoug the friends of the,prosecution in Boise.