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Judge Titus's Charge (1871)

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At the conclusion of the trial of the accused perpetrators of the Camp Grant Massacre, the presiding judge, John Titus, remanded the case to the jury for a decision.  As he did so, Titus issued the jury, made up of twelve Mexican- and Anglo-Americans from Tucson, a set of instructions designed to guide them in deciding the guilt or innocence of the accused.  After debating among themselves for only nineteen minutes, the jury reached a conclusion of not guilty on all counts for those suspected of participating in the attack.

Judge Titus’s charge would have been delivered orally to the members of the jury.  It was not included in the hand-written transcript of the court case but was reprinted in the December 16, 1871 edition of the Arizona Weekly Citizen.