John Davis was an American Indian. It may be difficult for the modern urbanite to understand the way he likes nature.Sometimes he would go to the river in his old clothes and sit for hours, just looking at the flowing river and listening to the wind in the treetops. He maintains a harmonious relationship with nature in this way, and constantly draws new spiritual strength from it, as if he really heard the words of nature. He was a member of the California Bar and was later elected District Attorney for Siskiyou County, where he was loved. One night in 1936, two well-known police officers died in the line of duty while arresting two men involved in a fight.

One of the witnesses was killed during the arrest, but the other survived and told police and Davis what happened. Davis believed that what he had said was not enough to convict him of homicide, and the witness retold it shortly afterwards. What I care about here is not the truth of the matter, but Davis's mentality and moral courage. Davis said first-time accounts from plaintiffs' witnesses indicated that the men who fired the shots acted in legitimate self-defense. (The officer took two witnesses to a camp to find the defendant, who was sound asleep at the time. As the officer "jumped" at the sleeping pair, evidence shows one of the witnesses yelling, "Fix these two sons of a bitch !” The defendant woke up with a start when he heard this sentence, and immediately got up to fight back.)

But these are not the main points. What I am interested in is not the evidence of this case, but Davis's views and practices on this case. In the end he refused to file a complaint. He also knows that in the eyes of the public, this is self-destruction of his political future, but he remains steadfast and faces the storm of public opinion on his own. Newspapers ran articles slamming him, and the authorities quickly appointed another prosecutor to take charge of the case, which resulted in a jury finding guilty and both defendants being sentenced to death. (The sentence was commuted to life in prison after the defendant spent about two years awaiting execution on death row.)

People who had previously supported Davis politically left him like autumn leaves. Davis has publicly stated: "The duty of the District Attorney is to follow his analysis of the facts and his judgment on the authenticity of the evidence. Of course, mortals will inevitably make mistakes, but he will definitely work hard to find the truth. No matter where the truth ends up, he must be correct. On behalf of the country A prosecutor must be careful to uphold the constitutional rights of the people. No matter who is killed or how powerful the mob is, he must have substantive justice. The spirit of the people who go forward cannot be called competent. When he took office, he must have sworn to uphold the Constitution and related laws and regulations, and to deviate from this position is to violate the trust of the country and the people."

Davis resigned from public service shortly thereafter, and died shortly after. Some fifteen years later, I had the privilege of being involved in the investigation of this strange case in which three people died, and the results somewhat changed the opinion of the public, and the accused was released on parole. But the prosecutor's courage has never escaped my mind.Facing the accusations of public opinion, seeing his political future gradually ruined, and seeing the community residents who turned his friends into enemies every day, he was able to persevere for the truth alone. This kind of harsh test is really unbearable, but he chose to stay and finish the battle.

He never gave up his belief until his death, and he never thought that many years after his death, the world would reopen the old case.I don't think he cares either. The sound of gurgling water, the sound of the wind whispering in the treetops... the music of nature brought him a kind of moral strength rare in mortals.In the palace of nature, he can admire the Creator and contemplate the reason why human beings are human. Here, I would like to use this book to commemorate Davis, the former prosecutor of Siskiyou County, California.