Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-04-24

agreeable task for any OF us. It is not
an agreeable task for me. 1t was not
an agreeable task for Messrs. Atkinson
and ConifF to stand here and look on
that red-handed murderer and plead Tor
his life. 1t will not be a pleasant task
for the Court to sentence this man. 1t
will be a most unpleasant task for the
Sheriff to execute him. 1t will be I'M
pleasant for you to find verdict. But
IT is YOUR DUTY
to return a verdict, without bubble
or a question. No one OF you, know,
has shadow of doubt OF his guilt, In
in the manner charged in the indict-
ment; aud if you believe that, there is
no doubt of your verdict.
"But it has been said By counsel on
the other side that you consign him TO
death. You do nothing Of the sort.
Yours is the most pleasant task OF all.
You simply sit here and hear the evil
dence and listen to the arguments, and
you simply report upon the facts. And
there is no doubt in any any mans
mind of his guilt. have often been In
censed by people saying, If were on
jury I'd never hang a man! Jurles
don't hang men. They simply pass up
on the facts. Juries don't make the
law. They are not the judges of the
law. / know that counsel have argued
in this Court room that juries are judges
of the law. You are not! The Court is
the Judge OF that. You are to hear the
evidence, and having heard that, II you
believed William Maier killed Mary
Maier, as charged in the indictment, 1t
is your duty to say so.
II want to start out knowing where
we stand. / have no doubt of his guilt
We all know it. 1t is agreed to by
counsel for the defense. The only
question is, will you agree to a compro-
mise, as other juries in this Court have
done, and allow this man TO go with
Imprisonment for life. There have
been
TOO MANY COMPROMISE vERDICTs.
1t must stop! Gentlemen, take all the
details of this caSe-all the facts, and
see wherein you can find one mitigat-
ing circumstance. IL can't be done.
II don't know how you gentlemen look
at murder. Have you ever looked at a
man lying dead-murdered-one whose
life has gone out as suddenly as cord
snaps? Have you ever done that, and
thought what a God-like thing man
is? The only one of all created beings
possessed of the power of speech! The
only one In whose countenance, as in a
mirror, is pictured hope and sorrow,
10y and despair! How noble in reason;
how infinite in faculty; in form how
like al angel; in apprehension, how Ike
Godn But the murderer comes; the
knife CLEANS, or the pistol cracks,
and he is cold in death.
There is funeral few priestly plati-
tudes-a cortege to the cemetry-and
then we have banquet for the worms,
and that which was once man is re-
duced to its earthly elements-and all
through the act of murderer! There
is a marble slab, perhaps; Derchance a
flower, such as may now bloom on Mary
Maier's grave, and the work Of the muir
derer is donei Oh, gentlemen, 1t is such
thoughts as these which reconcile me
to the law which demands an eye for an
eye, tooth for tooth, and a life for a
life, and that is what / demand from
you now, In
THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE
of this city and of this State! Now,
gentlemen, we have no misunderstand-
ing. say that this man ought TO be
hung, and it is your duty to find such a
verdict. There ought to be no compro-
mise. 1t is your duty, and under your
obligation you can do nothing else.
THE attorneys on the other side have
both apologized in trying to make de-
Tense for this deienseless man. The
facts are against them. Lawyers can't