National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1884-01-05
counter.

From time immemorial tho abb has been a
favorite defense with desperate criminals. 1t
has tho merit of being absolutely conclusive
when it is sustained by competent testimony;
tho reasonable doubt which counsel for guilty
prisoners are accustomed to press upon juries
with so much solemnity. When man COM
mits murder, robbery, or heinous as
sault, the easiest and simplest way for him to
! escape punishment is to persuade some of
his friends to swear that he was elsewhere at
the time the wrong was DONE Witnesses can
generally be found who arc willing to swear
to whatever state of facts the prisoners coun-
sci may deem necessary to constitute q solid
defense.
tried at Hillsboro, ILL.,, for committing an
outrage upon Emma Bond illustrates the
effectiveness of the alibi as a defense. No
more pathetic story was ever heard in a
court house than that told by this young
girl. There was no dispute as to the fact that
she had been seized in her school room after
her pupils had been dismissed, and lifted up
into the loft through q narrow hatchwRy,
aud there atrociously assaulted. 1t was
impossible that the crime could have been
committed by one mani there must
have been at least two, and Miss
Bond says there were three. John
c. Montgomery was the only one whom
she identified, but all the circumstances
showed that Potts and Clement were with
him. Tho theory of the defense was that
three tramps had concealed themselves in the
school house loft, and after the pupils had
gone dragged the teacher up to thoir hiding
place, but they failed to prove that any other
men were seen in the neighborhood during
the day, either before or after the outrage.
1t was shown, on the other hand, that all the
defendants were within easy reach of the
school house, and tho alibi which they proved
did not take them very far away.
1t seems that the settlement in which the
school house is located is poorled almost ex-
clusivoly by the Montgomery aud Pettis
families and their immediate relatives. The
first persons to whom she disclosed the out
rage had a powerful motive for shielding the
criminals, and she was obliged to rely for the
confirmation of her account of what happened
after she left the school house upon witnesses
who were closely related to two of the de-
PENDANTS. When it became necessary to set
up an alibi the Montgomery and Pettis
families had no difficulty in arranging chain
of domestic events which gave q semblance of
probability to the testimony of the witnesses
who located the prisoners at another place at
the time the outrage must have been com.
mtted
Outside of the Montgomely-Pettis settle
ment there appears to be a general conviction
that the prisoners were guilty, and since
their acquittal they have been menaced with
threats of lynching wherever they have gone.
No civilized community cares to tolerate the
presence of such men, and when the law fails
to deal with them according to their deserts
righteous public sentiment makes their
lives so uncomfortable that they are obliged
to 90 where their identity is lost among
strangers. In some instances wild" justice
overtakes them before they have chance to
escape,