Daily Republican., 1878-12-06

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NEW CASTLE, DEL, Dec. 9Th, 1878
[The proceedings Of court subsequent
to those published in yesterdays issue
are as follows
Court assembled at 8 o'clock. Judges
Comegys, Woottel, Houston and Wales
on the bench.
The cass Of Harley q. Brown was i'm
mediately called up, and the work Of
empansliing the jury began.
Harley Brown was brought out and
placed in the dock. His appearance
does not differ from that Of the day
upon which he was arraigned. He paid
earnest attention to the proceedings
that we're being transacted before him,
and a. his counsel, Mr.. Lore, gave di.
rectiOns to swear tn. jurors, he would
intsntly study their countenances, AZ
though endeavoring 10 fathom the state
Of their feelings. He was deeply, in
tently alive to the horrible position in
which he was placed.
Out Of forty. three Jurors called fifteen
were challenged, twelve had expressed
an opinion, and four had conscientious
scruples against trying aman when the
verdict is death. The twelve chosen
are:
William Jerome Eliason, foreman :;
Samuel J. Mccall, James N. Hirst, 81
wood B. Mckee, Joseph T. Brown,
franklin Wright, John +. Wrldin. ].
Henry Hanson, Frank 4. Brown, Will
liam Morrison, VIM. G. Carnaghy and
Vim Murphy.
The indictment was then read to the
Jury, ft.r which the Attorney General
spoke as follows
Gentlemen of The Jury is not ne
c.ssary to call your attention to the Sc =
iious character of the offence which you
are called upon this afternoon to try. |
know that you, havisg heard the in
dictment read by our clerk. now fe j
ssnsibly impressed with the greatness,
the magnitude Of the duty to which
you have been called. You have been
selected from among the jurors, EN-
pan-led TO attend this session Of the
Court, by the Stat. and by the counsel
representing the prisoner at the bar;
and rs you step into that box, by the
virtue of your oaths, you lay all feel
ings aside, and take your seats with
the determination to Judge the merits
Of the ease from the facts adduc from
the witness stand.
Harley g. Brown stands before you
charged in this bill Of indictment found
at the present term OF court, with hav.
ing on the twenty day OF last
June placed upon the track, or road
bed, Of the Philadelphia, Whining
ton and Baltimore railroad company, a
certain obstruction; and that in couse-
quence thereof by reason of the plac-
ing OF this obstruction on the road an
engine, tender and train of cars then
running and being on said road were
thrown off; and that further by reason
OF such obstruction, one, George Babes,
was killed, coming naturally and en-
trely as a consequence Of the act which
the prisoner stands charged with. 1t
is this question which you are now
called upon to try, whether it be true
that Harley q. Brown did the act which
he is charged with; whether he placed
upon that road the obstruction which
caused the death of the unfortunate
Babes. The law is plain upon the case.
The Attorney General then read from
pag 775, section twenty of the revis-
ed code to the effect ''that if any en-
gine or train shall be- thrown from the
track by reason Of an obstruction and
if any person shall be killed by reason
of this he shall be deemed guilty of
murder and shall suffer death"
You will See gentlemen of the jury
within the act of this assembly the Of
fence of placing an obstruction wilfully
or maliciously upon the road bed OF a
track and that death il caused by it, is
comprised the law itself. The Act
makes it murder in the first degree and
says that the penalty shall be death.
don't deem it proper to enter into
the definition OF murder, as the law is
explicit. You will see that the case is
very grave one. 1t is one which we
all approach with perturbation and fear,
lest We might fail in the discharge OF
our duties. We should therefore enter
into it with all fairness and deal with
nothing but facts.
We shall be able to show that on the
18th Of June Harley Brown the prisoner
was in the city of Wilmington; that he
left there and went to Chester where he
remained until evening; that he then
started off with the intention ofwalking
back to Wilmington; that somewhere on
the way back hs was 0vertaken by
agentleman in a carriage and convey
ed until he got somewhere near Clay
mont; that there the gentleman turned
off to the right; that the prisoner after
leaving the carriage started down the
road and finally got upon the track Of
the railroad, and whilst upon that
track and passing down 1t, he came to a
little bridge; that after crossing this
bridge he saw some old ties when it
entered into his brain that he would
place one of these old ties upon the track
before the south bound train would
pass; that whilst he was there in the
act he heard the whistle of the ap-
preaching train; that he then hastily
picked up the tie from where he had
jammed it in under the track, and
placed one end under the eastern rail
and the western end over the western
rail; that about that time the approach
ing train was very close; that the train
running about forty-fve miles an hour
struck this obstruction and as conse-
quenoep the engine and certain of the
cars were thrown from the track after
running about 800 feet; and that by the
engine burying itself in the embank-
ment, George Babes the engineer was
instantly killed.