St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-23
CHARGING THE JURY.
An Able Resume of the Case b,
Judge Kelly.

An Able Resume of the Case by
Judge Kelly.
1t was precisely 10 o'clock when Mr..
Erwin concluded his argument, and
Judge Kelly Immediately began the
reading of his charge to the jury. which
covered twenty-five pages of typewrit-
ten legal cap. The substance of the
charge was as follows:
This defendant, Walter T. Horton is ac-
cused of the crime of murder III the first de-
gree. The CRIME charged is the highest
known to the law or to the administration
of justice in the courts
The admitted fact in this case that this de-
PENDANT and Nellie NJ Horton were husband
and wife makes the crime charged against
him, If possible, more atrocious than it
would be otherwise.
Murder is fearful crime and to be az
cused of murder is fearful accusation
You twelve men now hold in your hands
the most sublime and delicate trust ever COM
mltted TO human Keeping; trust
For the Faithful,
fearless and conscientious discharge of
which you are answerable to the defendant,
to this community, to this state, your own
conscience, TO God. You must determine
from the evidence alone the ultimate cues
ton OF this defendants guilt or his inno-
cence And, having so determined to de-
clare your verdict uninfiueuced by fear or
favor of any man. unmoved by pity, on the
one hand; unswerved, on the other, by the
talk of the street.
Our law also provides that no person can
be convicted OF murder or manslaughter I'M
less the death of the person alleged to have
been killed be established as an independent
fact by direct proof, aud the fact of the kill
ing by the defendant, as alleged, be also
established as an independent fact by proof
beyond a reasonable doubt
In this case there has been direct proof
tending to establish as independent facts
first; that Nellie NJ. Horton
Died at This County
about the time as therein stated. and second
that she died from drowning in tie Missis-
sppi river. So that. if you believe this testi-
mony, the death has been established by
direct proof and as an independent fact. The
sole remaining question is, was this defend
ant the guilty agent in the death?
The undisputed evidence is that on the
evening of Aug. IA, 1910, the defendant
took his wife, Nellie NJ. Horton, and their
little daughter Mabel with him i'll this boat in
evidence, rowed them down the Mississippi
river. That at or near a point described by
the witnesses below Dayton's bluff and in
this county, the boat was overturned
whether by accident or design you must de-
termine. That from that boat rice neither
the wife nor the child ever returned. That
the waters gave up the wifes dead body in a
day or two thereafter; but no witness has
testified here thathe saw the child,
Living or Dead.
since that boat was overturned in the river
No witness has been produced vino saw the
drowning with his own eyes save the defend
ant. He has told you on the witness stand
his story of how it happened and the circum-
stances which attended it.
The state claims TO have proved this accusa-
ton against the defendant by what is know n
as circumstantial evidence.
CIrcumstantial evidence has been permitted
in courts of justice from time immemoriaL
Great crimes are seldom committed in public.
It is often only by the proper, fair and
iudieious use of more or less potential facts
or circumstances, which, though not proving
directly the fact in dispute, raised in the minds
of reasonable and Conscientious men so strong
an Inference of the truth of the disputed
fact as to Danish all reasonable doubts of its
truth, that justice can be done and violaters
of law punished.
/ charge you that, as q matter of law, the
burden of proof is on the state. The law
presumes every man
Accused of Crime
20 be innocent That presumption is not a
mere form, but is substantial part or the
law of the land. not to be dlsregareed at will.
The state claims that this defendant has