Page:Bench and bar of Colorado - 1917.djvu/23

Rh citizens, of what became known as Peoples' Courts. During the year 1860 there was an extraordinary influx of settlers into the Rocky Mountain region. Reports that gold had been discovered in the mountains and that men were growing rich fast had spread throughout the east. As the natural result, thousands flocked to the new El Dorado, and with them came scores of criminals of the worst type. Most of these undesirables made their headquarters in Denver.

It was with these criminals that the Peoples' Courts dealt. They were not courts in the usually accepted sense, though, in a way, all the forms of court procedure were observed in their proceedings. They have been compared with the vigilantes of other western communities of the early days, but this comparison is hardly fair because, unlike the vigilantes, they gave every accused man a fair trial and the benefit of a legal adviser before their sentences were pronounced and carried out.

Peoples' Courts were organized whenever an especially serious crime, such as a murder, had been committed. There were three judges and a jury of twelve, composed of substantial citizens. The man on trial was given every opportunity to present his side of the case and offer such testimony as would prove his innocence. The sentence of a Peoples' Court usually was death, though there are a number of cases on record in which the juries brought in verdicts of acquittal. In no case, as far as is known, did a People's Court ever make a mistake when it sent a man to the gallows. The sentence was usually carried out immediately after it had been pronounced.

In their methods and the speedy execution, the Peoples' Courts resembled the Miners' Courts of the mountain communities. There the similarity ends, because the Miners' Courts were regularly organized and permanent institutions, while the Peoples' Courts were called together only when the occasion required action by the law-abiding element. The Peoples' Courts did not possess any authority based upon law, other than the law of self-preservation, for