St. Paul daily globe., 1888-11-17

lncneS or the dofendantS right nand,
with the handle toward her hand. He
said that this was positive evidence that
she must have had the pistol in her own
hand. and that she was the one who
did the shooting. He ridiculed the idea
that the
SHOOTING WAS DONE BY scANLoN,
young man just in the prime Of life,
who had the best part of his lifetime
before him. He also said the fact of the
revolver being found OH the floor sew
eral feet from where ScanlOn was lying,
clearly diSproved this theory advanced
by the defense. He then branched off
on description of the lives and the
character of the defendant, her huS-
band Helwig, and Jessie Harris, the
cOlOred girl from Fargo. who testified
that she had been All inmate of house
of prostitution. He said that this was
the character of the witnesses sum-
moned by the defense, and asked what
dependence could he placed on their
testimony. This recital was quite
lengthy and concluded the county at
torney's argument, he having spoken
nearly one and one-half hours.
PEARL" WILSON'S DEFENSE.
Mr.. Wellington Immediately followed
him with the argument for the defense.
He opened his argument by criticising
the county attorney for trying to influ-
ence the jury against the defendant on
account OF her having been prostitute.
and said that in a case of this kind,
when the defendant was on trial for her
life, she should be tried on the evidence
in the case against her, and that her
private character had nothing to do
with establishing either her guilt or
innnannnn
why the witnesses for the defense were
not ministers OF the gospel was because
James ScanlOn never associated with
them. This negro woman who has tes
tilted was Servan in house of pros
tltution in Fargo, but she was an aSsO-
clate OF James Scanlon. If he had not
associated with this depraved class of
people, the defense would not have
been compelled to shock this upright
and noble representative of the state by
putting Oh the stand as Scanlon'S old
associates this class of people. They
were, however. his associates and his
companions, and consequently they are
witnesses in this case. When the rep
resentative OF tile state appeared few
minutes ago to be so very indignant be-
cause of the character of this negro
woman, who was witness, | could not
but think of the indignation of the ac-
cuSer against the woman accused of
adultery who was brought before. our
Savior. 1t will be remembered that the
penalty for that crime i'll those days
was to be stoned to death. When, how
ever, the woman's accusers asked our
Savior what should be done with her
He answered, Let the man among you
who is guiltlesS cast the first Stone.'
AT this answer the woman's accuSers,
who were SO indignant that she should
be guilty of committing such a crime,
went away one by one, until none re-
manned. Our Savior then said to the
woman, Neither do l accuse you. Go
your way A few minutes ago. while l
was listening to the outburSt of ihdig-
nation and
A TRADE OF ABUSE
from this representative of the state
against this unfortunate negro woman.
| could not but think that he must have
either forgotten the lesson taught us by
our Sayior. or that else it had never
found lodgment in his cold, unsmym-
pathetic breast. Think for a minute
who this James Scanlon was and what
kind of character he had. Mr. Well
ingtoh then went on to show that the
theory advanced by the prosecution
that PEARL Wilson must have shot
herself could not be true. He took the
pistol. showed the jury that it was i'm
possible for person to shoot himself
in the back of the head and have the
bullet take the course which it did in
her case, without placing the muzzle of
the pistol against t cir head, in which
case the powder would burn the hair
and blacken the wound the same as it
did the wound on Scanlon's head. He
also showed. accO ding to
THE EVIDENCE OF THE EXPERTS
who testified for the state, that a per
son receiving such a wound as she re-
ceived would instantly lose control of
her limbs and the pistol would fail be-
hind her instead of in front of her.
where it was found. He said that this
expert testimony was of very little
value. however, for generally an expert
considered it as his duty to testify in
favor of the party who summoned him,
and that so little value could be placed
upon it that in some states they were
considering the advisability of having
experts appointed by the state for the
purpose of giving this kind of teSti-
mony. He said that it had been shown
on fire which was held eight inches
sequently the pistol must have been more
than that distance from Pearl Wilson's
head when she was shot, thereby PROV
ing that Scanlan must have done the
shooting. He said that the position of
the pistol Oh the floor was matter OF
no Importance, for it lay so near both
Scanlan and the defendant that it might
have been dropped by either of them.
but as Scanlan did the shooting it must
have been dropped by him.
Judge Young gave quite lengthy
charge, al was very careful to tell the
jury that they should try the case on the
evidence and not let the fact that the
defendant had committed an otfense
against the law prior to this charge
have any effect with them in arriving
at a verdict, for they were trying her
for the otfense of murder only
The jury, after retiring, quickly
agreed upon verdict, and the return of
Not guilty. was made to the court
within an hour.