Martin C. Golden

Jury System a Farce

Grand Haven Daily Tribune - November 15, 1907

William Shimmel

Jury System a Farce

 

Ottawa County has had experience before with freak juries.  This Shimmel verdict is not the first.  A few years ago a boy was shot down in the southern part of the county and the man who did the killing was acquitted.  It was a plain case but the fellow who did the shooting went scot free.  Here in the Shimmel case where the evidence was purely of a circumstantial nature and the chain of circumstances not in the least connected, the twelve men, tried and true, find a verdict of guilty.  No, you can never tell what a jury will do.

 

The jury system is a farce.  Recent cases in Ottawa County have proven it.  Ottawa County juries are a considerable bit worse than those of other counties.  Judge Padgham’s stand in the Shimmel case this morning meats with the approval of 99 out of 100 people in Ottawa County and his firm position is to be commended.