Never hesitate to stand for what is right and just.

C.J. Lockharts Letter to the Editor

The Enterprise

Riverside, CA - January 17, 1925

 

Dear Sir:

I am writing this article in the defense of the jury that sat in defendant yesterday, January 16, 1925.  I noticed in your paper this morning, on page three, column six, that defendant who was charged with unlawfully having in his possession, liquor, and was tried by an all-colored jury won his freedom on the assertion that he "didn't know it was there."

I beg to say that the verdict was not reached on that ground at all.  On the contrary.  The state did not prove that the stuff that they found was liquor.  Mr. Babcock, the chemist who analyzed it, said that he did not know what it was.  He did not know whether it was a beverage or not.  But he said whatever it was contained 37 percent alcohol.  He said he did not taste it and could not tell what it was.

His honor, Judge Hibbard, in giving us the charge, said that defendant was charged with unlawfully having in his possession an intoxicating beverage, to-wit., liquor.  Since the chemist was afraid to taste it and could only tell its alcoholic content we could not say whether it was liquor or not.

I, therefore, claim that our verdict was not based on "he didn't know it was there," nor on friendship, nor on prejudice, nor on color.  But it was based on the facts as presented in the case to be equally fair with our boasted commonwealth and the defendant.

Very truly,

C.J.LOCKHART

Foreman of the Jury

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