Walden’s Case.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1749, 21 October 1885, Page 2

Walden’s Case.

The Evening Post states this the Journal has been “ divulging the secrets of the Grand Jury Boom in the Walden case, by stating that Mr Joe Dransfield as foreman fought tooth and nail to got the Grand Jury to find ” No Bill ” against the accused ; but that they on the contrary found " a True Bill ” by 18 to 5.” Our contemporary has been making a fuss about nothing, During the tme the trial of Walden was going on, the previous decision of the Grand Jury and the circumstances under which it had been arrived at, were a matter of common talk in various quarters and the statements in question were made by several people. How the information about what took place in the Grand Jury Boom leaked out wa do not pretend to explain. But that the information, was accurate and described what actually took place, there is no doubt at all. We never tried to penetrate into the secrets of the Grand Jury Room, but simply gave currency to a statement which had become public property. The Post also refers to our statement with respect to the verdict of “ Not Guilty” by the Jury in Walden’s case not being unanimous, and points out that all verdicts in criminal oases must be unanimous. That latter assertion is quite correct. But the meaning which we desired to convey was, that there was considerable difference of opinion on the part of the Jury in Walden’s case. Part of the Jury wanted to find a verdict of “ Guilty "against Walden. Another section were desirous of finding a verdict of 11 Not Guilty.” After a lengthy retirement, the supporters of the theory of “ Guilty,” gave in—though still in much doubt—and the verdict of “ Not Guilty 1 ' was returned. But, at bottom, (he jury were not really unanimous. Only it happened that the believers in the guilt of the accused at last hlm”doned their position so as to bring the matter to an end. As we said in our previous article, “ Walden just escaped by the skin of his teeth,”