A FESTIVE JUROR.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 907, 29 August 1910, Page 4

A FESTIVE JUROR.

DISCHARGED WITH A CAUTION. After discharging the jury in a divorce case ' which had engaged the Supreme Court into the small hours of Sunday morning, Mr. Justice Chapman addressed one of the number, who had distinguish-, ed. himself by returning in a state of intoxication after the.luncheon adjournment on Thursday afternoon, .thereby necessitating the adjournment of the Court until the following morning,, and the.accommodation of the.aforesaid juror in the police cells during the interval.. His Honour said that he had carefully considered the matter, as well as what, had been urged on behalf of the offender Tjy his own counsel in Chambers, also by the foreman on behalf of the other members of'the jury, and neither could offer any excuse for the offence. Had there been any danger of.this kind of thing being at all common, be should have had to take some very decisive stops; but, as he had said before, in an experience tending over forty years in connection with Courts of Justice, he . had never known nor heard of such a case, so that anything like exemplary punishment was not called tor. The Court had power to order either a fine or imprisonment, but he could quite understand the degradation felt by a man in the, juror's position at having to .spend a night in the common lock-up. Such an experience must have made an impression equivalent to a severe punishment. Under these circumstances, ho did not think the dignity- of that Court required further redress. Ho thought it sufficient that ho should reprimand the off sudor as he h-ad donei and, accordingly, he would discharge liim, without inflicting any further punishment.