The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-14
A REMARKABLE CASE.
A Man to be Tried for a Murder Com
mitted Forty Years Ago
From, the san Francisco CAL.

From the San francisco CdH
The case of Jesse d. Graham, who is now
in prison at Santa Cruz on charge of hav-
ing murdered Dennis Bennett thirty-eight
years ago, promises to be one of the most
striking cases in the criminal calendar of
this coast. The facts are these:
On April %, 1850, Dennis Bennett was
shot dead at the door of his house at
Cyante, in Branciforte now Santa Cruz
county. Several witnesses, namely, one
Dennis Connor, James Robinson, and Mr..
Hoyt, We're i'll the house at the time, and
testified that they saw the murder com
mitted by jesse d. Graham. Other Wit
nesses, to-wit, Mansell Bennett, Jackson
Bennett. Mary Bennett, Mary Ann Bennett
and Julia Bennett, went before the grand
jury and gave evidence in corroboration
On this an indictment was found which
was signed by William T. Wallace, then
District Attorney, since Chief Justice of the
State, and now Judge of Department No.
of the Superior Court III this city. That in
dictment is still ON file in the County Clerks
Office at Santa Cruz
For some reason or other, Graham was
never brought to trial for the murder.
Here the stories diverge. A surviving rela-
tive of the murdered man says that Ora
ham fled, and remained in hiding for several
months in the Santa Cruz mountains,
where he was supplied with food by his
father; that three years afterward he was
captured in Tuolumne county, but that tie
captors were Induced to surrender him to
his father in exchange for 5000; that he
then escaped TO Texas, where he lived many
years; that he finally returned to $ ,uthein
California; that he went by the name Of
Jones. On the other hand: friends of the
prisoner say that he never was in hiding:
that he lived unmoleSted at Santa Cruz for
over six months after the finding of the
I'd, tl,t h, h..a,
that place SINCE, under his own name,
without interfe, ence from anyone; that he
frequently met members of toe Bennett
famlly-the witnesses against him-and
was never denounced by them. 1t is no.
ticeable that, SO far as appears, the
prisoners friends do not deny that he killed
Bennett.
One popularity of the case, which seems
to command more attention in Santa Cruz
county than it would do here, is tat the
prisoner is said to rely upon the fact that
the alleged murder was committed before
California was State of the Union, and
that therefore he cannot be tried under It's
criminal code. California was not admitted
till Sept. O. 1850, and Bennett was killed, as
we saw, on April - of that year. But
California had been Territory of the
United States-though it had never had
recognized Territorial accommodation
three years prior to the murder and tae
Territorial condition carried with it the
common law. A murder was as niue .
murder before as after the admission of the
State, and was punishable in the same way,
by the same procedure, aid with the same
penalty II Bennett killed Graham, and
the fact can be proved by creditable wit
neSseS, it is not seen how it viii avail him
to show tuat the deed was committed before
California was admitted and while it was
working under the constitution of Mon
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