The daily gazette., 1879-11-22
FIFTH EDITION.
OUR COUNTY COURTS.
DOiNGS DURING THIS MORN
ING'S SESSION.
THE srARKEy JURY FAIL TO AaREE
AND ARE DIsCuARos sD-JAwYER

THE srAnKEY JURY FAIL TO AGREE
AND ARE DIscHARes D-LAwYEB
bird ON THE DArsoN CASH.
Specially Reported for the Gazette.
NEW CASTLE, Nov. 22.-As soon as
Couit opened, at 9.30 o'clock, this morn-
Ing, the jury In the case Of State VS..
Seweil Starkey came down and reported
that IL was impossible for them to agree;
they stood SIX for acquittal and six for
con, ,iction and had stood thus since they
had Drst gone up, twenty-iohr hours
before there was 10 probability Of them
agreeing, and they were discharged from
further considerati II of the ,asc.
Levi Z Bird, Esq, cou' sci for the
defence IN the Batson murder case, then
made his argument FOR the prisoner.
I his, he prefaced with an address to the
Court, upon the law bearing upon the
responsibility OF prisoner Of the age OF
the dee saed. The prisoner had been
shown 10 Ue under the age of Ia years,
and he therefore asked the Court IN lay
ing down tie law TO state that the jury
the appl,cat on Of the law, must consid-
er the prisoners aye. A boy Of IA years
considering facts like these shown In thr
de 'eiise, cannot be held 10 the
same state Of responsibility for his
action by jury, because of the
sclf-eyident fact that man would know
the effect Of such blow as that which
caused the death Of the deceased lad
better than boy wouli. The Couit
weuld cha'g ge the jury that boy canDot
be held as Iespouslb e a man. MIR.
Bird then went on to cite Numerous cases
I ls.. Al -. al I..tn.
and argued that the circumstances Of the
case were such as to justify sober con-
sdeIaton OF the principles OF selfde-
f,nse Ia horaicide cases. de asked the
Court to charge that question, as to
whether the danger was imminent and
apparent, which is to be determined by
what tie defendant at the time believed
| II TO be, gathered and decided by the
| jury from all the facts la the case. He
also asked the Court to charge in the
case in which the prisoner was Of that
age where criminal responsibility and
guilty knowledge. commenced; in other
words. to state that child under II
yea $, indicted for murder, must be
p,oved conscious Of the ac
Mr.. Bird commenced his address To
the Jury at IL. 40 o'clo ok, and made a long
aud able argument.
Mr.. Bird reviewed the evidence, claim
ing especially that the most credible OF
the witnesses saw but one blow struck;
that the physician discovered only the
marks of one blow, and that that blow
was ST. uck in self defense by William
Brown willie Batson was advancing
tlireateningly upon him, Batson being
the heaviest aud strongest Of the two,
and having Oh preceding 'ccasions beat
ell and domineered over Brown; and
that the blow was struck, not with up
raised bat swuug at full arms length but
by bat waved up and down in front OF
the prisoner to ward of Batson's threat
encd assault. Even were the prisoner a
man, Mr.. Bird claimed that this was an
excusable homicide.
But when IL was taken into considora-
tion that he was boy of an age when
the law presumes an incapacity TO dis
tinguish between right an0 wrong [un-
less tie contrary be shown by the State
which he claimed had not been done IL
this special cas'. II was not only excusa
be, but under the rcumstances justi-
farle. lie could well suppose that there
was not father on the jurv but would
Nlou HIS OWn sOn 10 utItnu HiiIstl
from similar attack, and reminded the
jurors that if the prisoner be convicted
I this charge, the day mi 1ht come wheI
son Of one Of them might occupy th,
same dock, and be convicted of the sam,
ime.
In closing bis plea he spoke feelingl,
Of the prisoners tender years and biz
CONDITION., and trus ed there was no
one on the jury SO lost to all humar
attributes as 10 brand this boy, littl
more than baby, with crime whicl
would put him in The cell, rum his nl
ture reputation and cloud all his pros
poets and cling to hrm through all hi
life. II would place a stigma upon hin
which he could never avoid nor cas-
OH.
AT II IS Mr.. Bird closed and Ml
, Gray dressed he court for nearly a
/, hour in reply to the points of law raise
by Defendants counsel.