TUNKHANNOCK: An opportunity to hear Woodrow Wilson, of New Jersey, undoubtedly one of the foremost and the most talked of American citizens to-day, is the chance of a life time. He will be here, Saturday, at 2 o’clock and hundreds of Susquehanna County people will embrace the opportunity to hear him.

LANESBORO: Clarence Spoonhouer and Charles Leibeck, aged 17 and 19 years, respectively, were struck by a D & H pusher engine near Bennett’s saw mill, Sunday evening at about 6:15 o’clock, both being instantly killed. The supposition is that the young men had stepped in front of a northbound track to avoid a passenger train, not noticing the pusher engine that was bearing down upon them. The bodies were badly mutilated. They were sons of Peter Spoonhouer and Peter Leibeck, both residing on Viaduct street.

SPRINGVILLE: A short time ago a man giving his name as E. L. Rice, accompanied by his “wife” engaged board at the home of Norman Brown, near States’ mill, he stating that owing to ill health of the woman, it was hoped the country air would prove beneficial. Friday the Brown family were surprised when four men in an automobile pulled up at the house, posted guards, and inquired if Mr. Rice was there. On being told he was, the men, who proved to be detectives from the Pinkerton agency, entered the house and Rice was soon handcuffed. Accompanied by the woman, who proved to be not his legal wife, they were taken in the car to Tunkhannock, where the Black Diamond express was boarded for Philadelphia. The man is said to be George C. Huff, of New York, a bigamist and notorious swindler. He was indicted in the New York courts last month for attempting to swindle Jackson Bros., dealers in Long Island real estate, out of $15,000. In Denver he at one time was obliged to give up $21,000 to square himself with citizens he had defrauded.

HOP BOTTOM: The Meacham family in the lower end of town are having a run of typhoid fever. Dr. Decker, of Nicholson, is attending them.

BROOKLYN: I. M. Whitman & Son have been given the contract for a new building, which will accommodate the primary grades of our school. The number of scholars has increased to such an extent that the directors took this means of solving the problem of more room. ALSO, during the noon hour last Friday some of the men who are working on the State road were eating their dinner in a barn when one of them noticed an old musket standing near him. Not thinking that such an ancient firearm would prove dangerous, he aimed it at once of his fellow workmen, and to his dismay, the gun was discharged, the shot destroying both eyes of his companion. At the time of the accident the unfortunate man was counting the wages he had just received. He was taken to the West Side Hospital in Scranton.

FOREST CITY: Miss Agnes Kelleher has resigned her position as a teacher in the local schools and this week went to East Stroudsburg to resume study in the Normal school. Miss Kelleher spent one year at that institution and has decided to complete the course.

SOUTH MONTROSE: Miss Anna Brewster has accepted the position of tutor of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Percy Ballantine. Miss Brewster entered upon her new duties Monday. ALSO, L. W. Bunnell, of South Bridgewater, advertises a sale of personal property. Mr. Bunnell is planning to go to Alaska and live with his son, Prof. Charles E. Bunnell, a teacher in the public schools. He may not permanently reside there, but plans to see the wonders of that little known country, and will give up farming, owing to his advancing years. Mr. Bunnell has lived in this vicinity for many years and his friends regret to see him depart. [Charles E. Bunnell eventually became one of the founding fathers and the first president of the University of Alaska.]

THOMPSON: Mrs. George Mead and Miss Leonard, of Starrucca, were very seriously injured one day last week while driving on the road between here and Starrucca. In some way the horse became frightened and ran off the bridge near Tommy Mumford’s, entirely demolishing the wagon and breaking the horse’s legs. The owner was obliged to kill the horse.

CLIFFORD: Last Wednesday being the 10th anniversary of the wedding of Mr. & Mrs. Walter Ayres, his brother, Will, thought it proper to observe the event in due form. He invited some friends to assist and as a token of esteem the friends left a nice collection of silver.

GREAT BEND: Hiram W. Miner, through his attorney, F. N. Gilbert, of Binghamton, has completed the licensing of sales of his hose coupler, to the Standard Oil Company, for a minimum license annual fee of $1,000 and as much more royalty as the sales will produce for a period of 17 years.

FLYNN, MIDDLETOWN TWP.: Martin Curley and bride, of New York, spent a couple of weeks with friends here. Mr. Curley has an excellent job in the custom house in New York.

NEW MILFORD: Whitney & Nass’s [apple] evaporating plant was destroyed by fire at 10’oclock Sunday night. Inside of an hour the entire building was a ruin. The damage will total $10,000, partially covered by insurance. With the building a large quantity of stock and machinery was destroyed. It is supposed that the blaze had its origin in the kiln in the evaporating plant. The plant employs fifteen people. The Hallstead fire department kept the blaze from spreading.

HOP BOTTOM: The ladies of the M. E. Church are holding bake sales every Saturday afternoon in E. M. Loomis’ store. A good variety of baking is for sale and a cordial invitation is extended to all. The Hop Bottom ladies are famous for their cooking.

LENOXVILLE: Geo. Pendelton and Miss Veda Hallstead were recently married in Erie, Canada. A few days later Wm. Ransom and Miss Beatrice Winters were married at the same place.

LITTLE MEADOWS: Charley Walsh’s house was burned to the ground on Sunday night, and mostly all his household good. ALSO, a good many young people in this place attended the dance at Frank Anderson’s; a fine time was had.

In March of 2007, a Joint State Advisory Committee was convened to consider the alleged “problem” of so-called “wrongful convictions.” After over 4 years, a 328 page report was issued but it is not clear how the final report itself was ever approved by the entire committee. Committee members from the law enforcement community and victim advocate community are crying foul. They contend that many of the findings and recommendations were never voted on and approved by the final committee. In fact, the committee has not had a formal meeting in several years. In other words, the report is filled with personal pet projects championed by academics and defense attorneys that have little to do with “wrongful convictions” and more to do with “wrongful” criticism of the existing criminal justice system.

Since 1970, there have been 5.1 million convictions in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In the wake of that staggering number, this Advisory Committee was able to identify somewhere between 8 and 11 “wrongful convictions.” Interestingly, the Advisory Committee does not look to factual innocence of the offender, i.e., demonstrable proof that the offender did not commit the crime. If this standard of proof were utilized, then the number of “wrongful convictions” identified by the Advisory Committee would end up being around 1 conviction out of 5.1 million. In a rational world, this empirical evidence would demonstrate not problems with the existing criminal justice system - but just how amazingly well it does its job.

The massive Advisory Report, however, now becomes a playbook for defense attorneys and academics to unfairly attack the criminal justice system. It contains countless recommendations aimed at making the investigation and prosecution of criminal acts more difficult, not for the sake of protecting the innocent or protecting victims, but for satisfying their own misguided and self-interested views of how a “perfect” justice system should operate.

In an extraordinary step, the law enforcement and victim advocate members of the Advisory Committee responded with their own report in an attempt to counteract the misinformation being peddled and summarized the problem as follows: “Though outnumbered, we attempted to at least make out our views as advocates for victims and public safety known at committee and sub-committee meetings. But not everyone was willing to listen to the concerns of victims and law enforcement, much less address those issues and attempt to forge a true consensus. As a result, the committee and its sub-committees stopped meeting for the last few years, during which time the proposals set forth in the principal report were drafted anonymously and in secret, with members given no chance to vote on the recommendations to be issued in their name.”

Can you imagine being appointed to a committee dedicated to studying an alleged problem as important as so-called “wrongful convictions,” and then being stonewalled from the entire process, but still have your name attributed to the report itself without any indication in the report that you opposed its findings, recommendations and conclusions? This is really shadow government at its finest with certain special interest groups using an alleged investigatory vehicle to advance their own personal interests. The report itself now becomes a self-serving exhibit for the very authors to waive around to the public as proof positive of the need for reform. The manner in which the report was drafted - in secret and anonymously - will likely be lost in the shuffle. Thankfully, 14 members of the Advisory Committee publicly rebuked their own report.

If you hear someone talking about this report and “wrongful convictions,” I hope you can remember the real numbers - 5.1 million convictions since 1970 in the Commonwealth with only a handful (at best) of questionable results. The real story is what a great job law enforcement and prosecutors do in catching and prosecuting the bad guys.

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.