Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 03.pdf/422

 Rh he resented. Then the two lawyers clinched. The judge rapped for order, but chaos increased. The plaintiff and the defendant began pummelling each other; and one of the jurors, in endeavoring to stop hostilities, received a black eye. When quiet was restored, the judge said that if the fighting was not stopped he would adjourn the case. The assaulted lawyer invited his opponent out into the road; but the challenged party did not care for further personal encounter, and apologized for his action. The lawyers returned to the city in sep arate conveyances.—Albany Journal.

A case which occurred a short time ago in England, at the Chester Assizes, shows the inex pediency and injustice of detaining a jury for any excessive period in the hope of getting a verdict. A married woman named Cutler had been con victed of perjury, the trial lasting fifteen hours, and the verdict being found shortly after midnight. The presiding judge, Mr. Justice Vaughan Wil liams, sentenced the prisoner to five years' penal servitude. The case excited much comment, and an effort was made to obtain the views of the jury, in order to press the Home Secretary for a re duction of the punishment. One juryman writes : 11 was one of the five to hold out against the verdict of guilty. You will naturally inquire why I gave way. One reason was that we had sat from 9.30 a. M. until midnight, and it was of great im portance that I should be at home the following morning. Had it not been for that, I would have sat for a week without giving way, because I con sidered that there was a doubt in the case, and that the woman should have the benefit of it. I did not think the sentence would have been more than six months at the most." Another juryman says : " I was very reluctant in convicting the prisoner, as there are very grave doubts in the case. For myself I was in favor of giving the prisoner the benefit of the doubt." A third jury man writes : .' I think there has been a mis carriage of justice. Although a verdict of guilty was returned, many of us were very hard to con vince, but, owing to the late hour, we felt that a verdict must be arrived at. As to the sentence, I should like it to be considerably reduced or entirely cancelled." A fourth juryman says that the ver dict turned on certain plans of premises, and he was so dissatisfied with the sentence, that on the

389

following day he went to inspect them, and he made up his mind at once that, had he seen the premises prior to the trial, he certainly would not have given a verdict of guilty. • He adds explana torily : " The jury were about equally divided, but none were strongly against the prisoner." — Legal News.

decent Dentin. Judge James A. Milliken, for many years a prominent member of the Washington County Bar, Maine, died July 8. He had held various town offices, had served a term in the Legislature, and was chairman of the commission created in 1869 for the equalization of municipal war-debts. He was elected judge of probate of Washington County in 1872, and was three times re-elected. He served sixteen years, but resigned in 1888 on account of failing health. He was seventy-eight years old. Isaac Hazlehurst, one of the oldest members of the Philadelphia Bar, died on July 7. Mr. Hazlehurst was born in Philadelphia Nov. 27, 1808, and was one of eleven children of Samuel Hazlehurst. He graduated from Trinity College in the class of 1828, and then began the study of law with Joseph R. Ingersoll, and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia April 22, 1831. Mr. Hazlehurst early in life took an active part in politics, and was the first City Solicitor under the act of consolidation, serving for two years. He was also, for several years, a member of the State Legislature, and was a Native American candidate for Governor, but failed of election. In 1841 Mr. Hazlehurst was elected a Vice Provost of the Law Academy of Philadelphia, serving con tinuously in that position until 1855. He took an active interest in various public and charitable in stitutions, and at the time of his death was the oldest member of the original Board of Trustees of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. He was also a member of the Board of Counsel of the House of Refuge, one of the original Directors of the Pennsylvania Fire In surance Company, and a member of the Board of the Franklin Fire Insurance Company.