TRIAL BY JURY IN RUSSIA.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 2 July 1880, Page 2

TRIAL BY JURY IN RUSSIA.

» Trial by jury iv St. Petersburg lends to extraordinary results. Last autumn a postman was acquitted who had no doubt stolen hundreds of letters, and the decision was indorsed by the newspapers, for no other reason than that the prisoner had received but a sroall salary. Now we read of n post»ofiice official going scot free who had stolen a letter containing 8200 roubles, and afterwards, by forgeries, attempting to conceal the robbery. On June 23 cr last year the prisoner an "honorary citizen," appropriated the packet of roubles. Two days after he quitted his employment and then devoted himself to a life of pleasure, which was cut short by his arrest, the embezzlei ment and forgeries having been dis» covered. A considerable portion of the spoil was found upon him in the shape of various public securities. On appearing at the bar he urged the naive excuse that he had ' suddenly been seized with an un» controllable desire * to live ' (ss he said) if tut for one day only, and under the possession of this impulse had quite un» consciously <aken and made use of the 8200 roubles.' Such ingenuousness, crowned by a promise to do his best to restore the sum 9 spent, proving too much for the feelings of the jurymen, he was at once acquitted. In Russia fraud is. unhappily, so frequent on a large scale, where the criminals are men of impor* tance, that it is naturally judged incons venient to deal hardly with smaller offenders.