The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-11-10
THE FINAL
SEQUEL TO THE HARDING TRACED

HIS IN COURT TO ANSWER FOR
II sHOoTINGOF THE NORTH THE
u CONFIRMS THE OF n
PEOPLE AND DIRECTS A NoLLE PRosEoUI
TO BE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF PROSECUTOR
URoPsEY, JUDGE JORDAN AND MAJOR COR
DON.
The case of the State VS.. George C. Hard
ing for assault and battery, came up in the
Criminal Court yesterday afternoon.
The indictment for which Harding was ar
raigned was brought in consequence of the
shooting of Solomon Moritz last summer.
The circumstances which gave rise TO the
shooting as well as the tragic death of
Miss Flora Harding, ruined by Moritz, are
too we'll remembered to need any reference.
The justification for Harding's action on
account of the tragedy was by many con
sidered sufficient ground for the grand Jury
to ignore any proceeding against him, but
that body compromised with itself, as 1t
we're, by bringing in an indictment merely
for assault and battery. The trial of the
defendant when he first entered his appear
auce was postponed until yesterday. The
Criminal Court room was densely packed nc
2 O'Clock when the case came up. The de-
PENDANT was accompanied by Major Gordon,
his attorney, while the State was represented
by Prosecuting Attorney Cropsey. The
latter opened the proceedings by
stating to the court that after repeated de-
LAYS it bad been found impossible to secure
the attendance of Moritz, the prosecuting
witness, and hat It would be folly and a
waste of the public money to proceed to
trial without nm. He therefore moved
the court that a nolle prosequi be entered
against Harding.
THE DEFENSE.
Major Gordon, by permission OF the court,
said a few words as counsel for Harding. He
stated, in substance, that the court and the
general public knew the circumstances
under which the alleged assault
and battery took place. The whole ommu-
nifty have fully approved and justified the
act for which my friend Harding stands in
dicted. Public opinion in this country has
generally, and i may say. indeed, always
given its sanction to the destruction of the
seducer or slanderer of the innocent
female. 1t has been my fortune to
both defend and prosecute men charged
with murder under such circumstances,
aud the result has always been the same.
1 have not known a single instance in which
the slayer of a seducer has been punished
by the verdict OF a jury. In the case OF the
State against rewland for the destruction of
II NtuOCtI Vi dis udukultT uu-
der circumstances of unusual cruelty,
the father was acquitted by the jury with
the approval of the public. So too in the
case OF D~oughertY, who slew the slanderer
Of his sister, the same result was attained
within a few moments after the retirement
OF the jury, whose verdict met with
the same general sanction, and
yet in both these cases the
injured party survived the injury. In
the case at the bar, however, IL il not so.
The innocent daughter
sEDUcED AMI RUINED
was, at the very moment the frenzled father
assailed her destroyer, in the agony
of death, and did not survive the
assault two hours. Her father, my
client, had just come from her death bed
not to seek the seducer for the purpose of
assalling him, but TO seek help whereby he
might, If possible. save the life of his ruined
and dying child. In the fronzy OF the
moment no stumbled upon the wretch
who, under the guise of friendship,
had seduced and ruined her, and without
reflection, aud when, indeed, he was utterly
Incapable of refiection-in the blind impulse
ofthe moment committed the act which Is
charged against him In this indictment-an
act no more criminal han IL would be
for n father, whose innocent child
had been stungt t. death by a poisonous r p
tile, and who, upon picking up his child
bleeding and dying from the poison, should
behold the serpent and Immediately put his
heel upon its head and destroy tho thing
from the earth. I'm such q case az this, il
is time that the mockery of going
to the jury with the plea o. insanity, in or
der TO gat the horrible facts before them
should come to an end. Juries never, in
such cases, believe the parties insane, on the
contrary, they always regard the facts in
the case as a full justification OF the de-
struction of the seducer, aud acuuit
the slayer because they would
have done the same themselves.
It is the common law of the West, aud, in
deed, of the whole country, that he who Sc
duces al innocent female
MAY BE SLAIN
by her father, brother, or husband with i'm
punity, and In the case at bar the
grand jury have, in effect, already
said so by returning a bill of
indictment for a simple assault and battery.
This indictment in effect ignores the crime
that under other circumstances would nave
been charged against the defendant, and /
heartily concur with the prosecuting attor-
ney in the opinion which he has ex-
pressed, that it would be
useless waste of public time
and money to put the defendant upon his
trial. / trust the court will sustain the mo-
tiop and discharge my honored and afflicted
friend from further annoyance and trouble
from an affair which has already wounded
him so deeply.
REMARKS OF THE COURT
Judge Jordan then said that the approba-
ton or disspprobation of the public was no
ground upon which he could act in any case.
The opinion Of the public could not be con-
sidered at all by him as a court. The safety
OF the community would not permit him
the slightest consideration. There would be
no safety indeed for life and property were
the courts to allow themselves TO bs influ-
enced by any other consideration than the
facts in evidences and the law i'm each case.
These only and not public opinion
either approving. or Disappearing