The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-18
HIS HOPE WITH THE JURY
NO VERDICT IN THE CASSIDY CASE
AT MIDNIGHT.

Argument for the Prisoner and the
Solicitor Generals Presentation for
the State-The Chain Of Evidence
Which the Jury is Asked to Convict
Cassidy of Murder-Scenes About the
Court House-Awaiting the Verdict
Cassidy in His Cell.
The Cassidy case was given to the jury at
2?2T~ o'clock yesterday afternoon, and at l
O'Clock this morning verdict had not been
reached All sorts of rumors We're ahoat
in the vicinity of the court house. 1t was
rumored among other things that the jury
was agreed as to Cassidy's gl1t, but the
point of difference was as to whether the
verdict should be the extreme penalty Of
the law, or recommendation to imprson-
ment for life. 1t is evident that the point
of difference is Aadical and that there is no
likelihood of the extreme penalty.
At midnight all hope of a verdict last
night was disSIpated. Had the jury agreed
upon a verdict before that hour the Judge,
counsel and prisoner would have been sum
moned to hear the result. After midnight
the doors were closed, and Clerk Carr with
drew from the room with the court dockets
The first relief of deputies, composed of
A. Jones Franklin, +. Mendel, and JOS
Simmons went off at l o'clock, and they
were succeeded by the second relief
Michael Hanley, Lewis Prudential and
VIM Hall.
After the jury went out in the afternoon
Cassidy was returned to his cell in the new
Jail. where the ordeal of the day did not
seem to lessen his appetite for supper. His
cell was dark at Il: 80 last night, but
whether Cassidy was asleepno one but him
self knows. He has been reticent to the
last. He keeps his own counsels, but the
fact that his life or his liberty was in the
hands of twelve men at the court house did
not seem to be significant enough for him
to make any of his friends a contidant
LAST DAY OF THE TRIAL.
Yesterday was the fourth day of the trial
The second and last speech for the defense
was opened by Col. Mercer Immediately
upon the converting of the court. Mr.
Richards had on the evening previous made
an earnest and ingenious plea for his cliert
He inveighed against what he considered
the unfrieadly attitude of the press toward
him, and the popular clamor that Cassidy
should hang. The press, he said seemed to
have taken the view that his client was
bound to prove his innocence, and not that
the burden rested upon the State to prove
him guilty. He discredited what he de-
nounced as the incredible story of Barney
Reyes arousing i'll deiirium from drunken
sleep, i'll which the presence of Cassidy in
his room was the Authorization OF drunk
ard; and reasoning upon the theory, false
in one thing, false in all, he held that Keyes'
statement was improbable, and from that
circumstance there was doubt.
There are times, he said, when jurymen
are called upon to doubt; when it IS duty
to doubt, and when it is a murder not TO
doubt. McGowans testimony was discred-,
tied upon the assumption that he had slept
unconsciously and did not lay awake all
night, as he had testified McCfowan, from
he fol fhat ba haIu M
prepared to believe that Cassidy was out
that night, and hence the belief became
reality to his mind, although Smith had
left his room after McGowan had gone up
stairs, and ths latter had not heard him
leave or pass down the stairs. He argued
from the absence of the shoes woT. by Cas-
sidy on the island and the absence of Maggie
Terrell ON the witness stand that the State
might have produced both.
A DANGEROUS TEST.
He dwelt upon the measurements of the
feet of some of the witnesses as similar to
the larger footprints on the island, arguing
that 1t was a dangerous test to apply, to
convict his client, and lie cited English au-
thoritles upon that subject to sustain his
argument. He argued that the presence Of
strangers ON the isand-beach hands,
tramps and discharged employes-was a
subject that the jury had the right to con-
slider, and that the presumption was a
natural one that Smith might have been
murdered by one of these and not by the
defendant. His plea for his client was Ger
tainly an able one, and he suffered no points
to escape which he could Use to cloud the
minds of the jury in his favor.
Col Mercer followed in the same line of
argument. He is a less deliberate speaker,
but none the less able. His grouping of in
no more incisive, l'tt he spoke with greater
feeling-a deeper interest, rising at times
TO unstudied ~!,quence. At times a
stranger would ave been warranted i'll
thinking that h doubted the innocence of
the man to whose defense he was bringing
all of his legal acumef, his tact, his adroit
reasoning, his dexterous presumptions, his
mastery genius and his eloQuence of APP
peal, for at one time he said lit may be I'M
fortunate not to convict this defendant
but it must be done upon the evidence, and
again, 1.-The alibl he has proven may be
false, Tilt IL is true testimony TO you be
cause it has not been impeached;" but to
those who knew the motive which prompted
the remarks there could be no mistake. 1t
was the tactlul language TO reach some
juror and shake his faith, and made only
after the speaker had shrewdly whitfield the
testimony of the Sta e into bits and dwelt
forcibly upon all that which had approx
mated favorably to the defendant.
THE FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND.
He pictured graphically the danger of
circumstantial evidence, and in abiding to
the footprints he rounded up one of his SEN
fences with the remark that mo mans life
should depend upon footprints measured in
the shifting sands of Tybee with rotten
reed"
In the hurry of his argument, misquoting
testimony adduced on the trial he was not
in the least Disconnected when corrected by
the Solicitor General, and at one stage
when asking why the shoes worn by Cassidy
on the island were not produced by the
State when it had the opportunity to pro-
duce them he was interrupted by the
Solicitor Generals answer that the State
had no power to compel the defendant to
give up anything which could be used in
evidence against HIM, and that the Supreme
Court of Georgia had so decided in setting
aside verdict where this rule had not been
complied with Col. MERGERS parry of this
was prompt and ingenious. He elOquently
commented on the fact that the defendant
had willingly surrendered the shoes for
measurement at the barracks the day after
the murder. His closing remarks were de-
mandatory of capital punishment. He
held it wicked to take human life and re-
GREETED that the laws of the State Of Geor-
gia authorized "a jury to take what God had
given.