, 1876-10-29
4 NEW LAW OF sELF-DEFENsE.


us from 3'gush."
L NEW LAW OF sELF-DEFENSE.
| Judge McA111srER has not contenred him
| self with SO constituting the law and the eyi
dence as to secure q disagreement Of tht
| Jury in the SULLIVAN case, but acts tht
partisan of the accused now that the case i:
| over Thus, in reported interview after tht
! trial was over and the jury discharged, Judge
McA111s1EE summed up the whole case IS
! follows:
The fact Of the business was TINT SULLIVAN
struck EANFoEp, and then that this big fellow
grabbed him around the neck and held him. and
while he held him there and could not move,
HASPoRD ran up and struck Mrs. SULLIVAN, and
raised gust Of anger in SuLL1vAS's mind, and
+ that is what caused him to shoot
Now, t' the fact Of the business is" that
the above is pnlpable misstatement Of the
case, in no sense justified by the evidence
produced on the trial, which We presume to
be the only source Of information enjoyed by
Judge MoAL11sTER- About the only actual
truth in the above is the statement that Sui
11vAN struck HINFoRD but there is sup
preston Of truth even in this, since McAI-
LISTER did not soy that HASFoRD was being
held by Mr.. DuSuAM when SULLIVAN struck
him, and since he also forgot to mention that
SULLIVAN knocked him down, fell upon him,
and had his thumb in HANroRDs eye able to
gouge it out when 1Ir. MoMU1nex grabbed
him and pulled him of. As to fleis 's big
fellow holding SULLIVAN, it may Be men,
toned that there probably isn't difference
Of five pounds in the weight of Su114vAs
and McMu11EN, and that SULLIVAN is the
more athletic and powerful man of the two,
besides being the physical superior in every
way of the man he first knocked down and
then killed.
Further, when Judge McA111srEE says
that while Mc11u11xy held SULLIVAN SO he
couldn't move, ''HASFoRD ran up and struck
Mrs, SULLIVAN" he draws very largely upon
his imagination SU111vAS and HANFoED
were not more than -four or five feet apart,
according to MIR. McMU1LES. The evidence
shows that Su1L1vAN's wife ind brother
rushed up to HANFoRD after the lltter was
down, and it was very probable that HAM
FORD could not get up without pushing them
of. It is possible that in doing so-he was
stunned and bewildered, and the blood was
streaming down from his face rs he arose
he might have thrown his hand into Mrs.
sU111yAN's face in the effort Of pushing her
away. The only evidence that she received
blow comes from SULLIVAN and his BROTH
er, while the prosecution would have proved
by Mrs. HASFonD and the hackman, if they
had been permitted. that HASFoRD struck
no blow. The doctor attending Mrs Sui
11yAS in her nervous prostration SAW
no trace Of it. Mr. DuNHAM also testified
that when HASFoRD got up he DuSHAa)
again took hold of him, SO that he could not
have iran up and struck Mrs. SULLIVAN n;
and it was while DuNHAM was holding HAM
FORD that SULLIVAN. shot him,-the whole
affair occurring within compass of few
feet, and within q few minutes time. It
should be remembered that SULLIVAN has
said always that it was his purpose to wound
HASFonD in the arm. The fact is, that when
HASFoRD, a feeble man, blinded with blood
and staggering from SuL11vAS's blow, arose
to his feet, he stretched his arms toward
SULLIVAN, and the shot was fred two or three
feet lower than his arms in vital part of the
body ; the trace Of the ball was dopnpord.
showing that SULLIVAN did not shoot at the
arms, which were several feet higher up.
This is the sort Of case out OF which
Judge McA111srER constructed a theory of
seh-defense, and it WIS on the strength Of
these facts that he advised the jury, in effect,
that suII1yAS's assault on HAspoRD ceased
when McA1ul1ES pulled him off, that HAM
FORD renewed the quarrel when he got M.
and that SULLIVAN then had the right to de-
fend himself with the revolver. This is
what the Cincinnati Gazette, in commenting
On the case, calls ''the scoundrels' code of
seH-defense," while the St. Louis Go5e-
Democrat concludes from the case that "A
Chicago man may not only arm himself as 9
preliminary to going out shooting, but, if he
will only knock lis victim down, he nav
shoot him in defending himself from the
constructive assault committed by his vic
tim IN getting up" This is about the law Of
sef-defense as it has been left by the Sun11-
VAN trial
oFN III