The Asheville citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1885-1889, 1886-03-25
JOYCE NDRDBR TRIAL.
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FOURTEENTH DAYS PRO
cEKD1NGS. S asua.s -
ARGuMEN4 coNTiEUED
WEgaEgpar 1areh 20,

ARGUMENT CONTINUED
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WEgaEpAr, March an
i Court met pursuant to adjournment.
Col. " s. Lusk addressed the Couri
and jury on behalf Of the Stale 81 - 8.
May & please the Court and Gentlsnen
Of the Jury - q = -
We regretted vets 81 much b near lthe
declaration made BY the le armed counsel
Efor the prisoner yesterday afternoon that
4 the disposition Of the prosecution Wae
70 taEe bId0sl l6l6llt69 u l5ds figjtt 10 tzl
blood on not. beg to assure YOU that
feelings The only desire we shavs sisfo
flsee the sogiminal law sstfictly enforced;
! ana the perpetrators of this great crime
brought soj Justice. Z The1 criminal .lawsis
not 1ounded in principle ofveneeance.
It does not punish, that it may intiict
suffering. The humanity of the law feels
and regrets every pain it causes, every
hour of restraint it imposes, and more
deeply still, every life 1t forfeits. But it
uses evil as a means ofpreventIng great
er evil It seeks to deter from crime by
the example of punishment. This is IT'S
true and only true object. It restraints
the liberty of the few offenders, that the
many who do not perpetrate crime may
enjoy their own liberty. 1t forfeits the
lives of those who commit murder, to de=
ter others from committing like crimes
The law might open the doors of all the
jails in the country and release all the
| criminals therein confined, and it would
could be made certain, that no other Of
fenses, would hereafter be committed.
1t Furnishes, not TO shed the blood of
those owing allegiance to its mandates.
but simply to restrain others. When
the guilty are not punished, the law has
so far failed in its object; the safety of
! the innocent is so far endangered. Ev-
cry unpunished murder takes away
something from the. security of every
mans life. And whenever jury, through
whimsical and ill founded scruples, suf-
fels the guilty to escape merited pun
ishment, they make themselves answer,
able for the augmented danger of the
innocent. t
Gentlemen, this is most extraordina-
ry murder, but it ID still muder. We
are not to lose ourselves in wonder in
contemplating its atrocity, but detect
and punish it; and while we proceed with
caution against the prisoners, and are to
be sure that we do not visit on the heads
of these prisoners the crime of others,
we are yet to consider that we are deal
ing with case of most atrocious crime,
committed under the most cruel and I'M
natural circumstances conceivable, befit-
ting, in its enormity and dexterity the
handiwork of an old and experienced
criminal. It IS nevertheless murder, dea
hberate, pre-concerted, malicious mur
der. -. -
They who committed this crime, did
| it in secret. and thought their secret safe.
No eye had seen them, no ear had heard
them. Such a secret can be safe no
where. The whole creation of God has
neither nook nor corner, where the gull
ty can hide such crime. Not to speak
Of that eye which glances through all
DISCUSSES and behold every thing as in
the splendor of Inoon,-such secrets Of
guilt are never safe from detection, even
by man. True it is sthat murder will
out" True it is that Providence hath so
ordained, and doth so govern things that
those who break the great law of heaven,
by shedding mans blood, seldom sue
ceed in avoiding discovery. Especially,
in case exciting SO much attention as
this, discovery must come and Will come
sooner or later. A Thousand eyes turn
at once to explore every man, every
thing, every circumstance connected
with the time and place; thousand ears
catch every whisper; thousand excited
minds intensely dwell on the scene, shed.
digg all their light, and ready to kindle
the slightest circumstance into blaze of
discovery. Mean time, the guilty soul
cannot keep its own secret. 1t is false!
to itself; or rather it feels an irresistible
impulse of conscience to be true to itself.
1t labOrs under its guilty possession, and
knows not what to do with it. The hu-
man heart was not made for the resi-
dence of such an inhabitant. 1t finds it
self prayed upon by a torment, which it
dares not acknowledge to God or man A
vulture is devouring it, and it can ask no
sympathy, or assistance, either from
heaven or earth. The secret which the
murdererpossesses, soon comes to possess
him, and like the evil spirits of which
we read, it oyercomes him, and leads
him whitheIsoever it will. He feels it
beating at his heart, rising to his throat,
and demanding disclosure He thinks
the whole world sees it in his face, reads
it in his eyes. and almost hears its work
ings in the very silence OF his thoughts.
1t has become his master. It betrays his
discretion, it breaks down his courage, it 1
conquers his prudence. When suspi-
cions from without begin to embarrass
him, and the net of circumstance to en-
tangle him, the fatal secret struggles
with all the greater violence to burst
forth from the solitary confinement of
the human heart. 1t is like the curse of
Cain, and well may he exclaim that "my
punishment is greater than / can bear.o
If he takes the wiz gs of the morning or
dwell in the midst of the sea, the dreadful
secret is constantly Juggling at his heart
strings. If he fee away upon the sable !
wings of night, beyond the penetrating rays
of light, and hide in the midst of outer
darkness, still ever present is the still small
voice reminding him of his crime. United
for heaven, and dreading the punishment
of hell, he wandcrs through miserable
life, and rejoices sif, at the end, Oblivion
would him from his relentless tor
ment. This is hell on earth, and for aught
we know this feeling of guiltmay follow us
into the spirit world and constitute our
he'll after death. y 8.
Turn whithersoever he may, there Is no
sunshine in his souL and no light to light
up the recesses of the benighted heart, the
unwilling home of this dark and comsum-l
ing secret, and none but His veice who
stilled the tempest tossed waves of Galilee
and naught but the radiance from the crys
tai door left ajar, can still his aching heart
and illumine the dark recess of his guilty
Esoul
One of the learned counsel for The de 4
fense said, it would not do to find these
prioners guilty. They say it would be a
dangerous precedent by which you, your
selves, might, at some future time be con-