Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1908 — JURY DISAGREES; WAS DISCHARGED [ARTICLE]

JURY DISAGREES; WAS DISCHARGED

A. Rosenbaum Jury Failed To Reach an Agreement and After Many Ballots Are Released. The jury that tried August Rosenbaum. the Hotel Rosenbaum landlord, for alleged illegal sales of liquor were discharged at shortly before 6 o’clock Thursday evening having failed to reach an agreement The court admonished the members of the jury against telling how they stood or what the dissenting reasons for a failure to reach an agreement were. It is safe to say, however, that there were more than half of the jurors all the time that favored an acquittal of the defendant on the grounds that the state had failed to introduce sufficient evidence to secure a conviction, and that if the liquor was sold by Mrs. Rosenbaum as the prosr Routing witness testified the state had failed to prove that it was done with- 1 in the knowledge of Rosenbaum, the' defendant. It is quite reliably stated that the jury stood 7 to 5 for ac-' quittai and that later it stood 8 to 4 for acquittal, and in fact one of the j ballots taken by the jury Wednesday' night which showed the result to be' 8 for acquittal and 4 for conviction,' found its way to a restaurant at about midnight and was soon in the hands of a reporter for the Republican. It was not Intended to be outside the jury room, but the hungry jurymen had become excited when they had an opportunity to procure a midnight lunch and had used the back' of one of the ballot scores on which to write their lunch order. There were never less than four for conviction and most of the time there were five. There were five at the beginning and five at the finish,’ and there were seven for acquittal. The result of the disagreement will mean that the case will go over to the September term of the court, and if the prosecuting witnesses should happen to move out before that timq the case will never come to trial and it is not probable that it will any way, for it would be almost impossible to convict with the evidence the state introduced. The liquor will be held at the oourt house pending a settlement of the case and if the case is not tried again the liquors will be restored to Rosey, the understanding of the law as given out in the court’s insrtuctlons being that so long as liquors are not offered for sale or sold they can be kept in anj quantity in any private house or private apartments. So, whether Rosey has the liquor on hand simply for rub downs or not, it is probable that ultimately it will; find its way back into the hotel and i it is hoped that the bottles will be' kept as tightly corked as Rosey says it has been in the past. And if Rosey is making an effort to obey and respect the law that is all the people 1 of Rensselaer will want, they will not care to try to reform his personal habits. | It wfT be a great relief to the tem-peran-e ] eople to knc< that Ros-y has the welfare of the law in mind and that he has joined hands with | the good people to help enforce them.