Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-02-11

no motive TO swear away the lie
of the prisoner; she had seen him
but once previous TO his arrest and
only few times since. Her testimony,
he asserted, was most damaging to the
defence. To prove an alibi there must
be no breaches in the time; the where
abouts Of tho defendant must be ac-
counted for all the time in question and
that the defence had failed to do. The
prisoner possessed knowledge which no
innocent man could possess, knowledge
of which an innocent man, had he
possessed il, would have spoken. In
concluding he declared the evidence
pointed to Blackburn as the slayer of
Eddie Gardiner.
III, ii. Ward, counsel for the defence,
began at II o'clock TO reply to Mr.. Biggs'
law citations and 20 minutes later he
commenced his opening address to the
jury, doing the latter after presenting to
the court n prayer, asking it to instruct
the jury that it must be satisfied beyond
reasonable doubt of Blackburn's guilt.
lie told the jury he was not paid
counsel IN the case, he had been assigned
by the court and he had done his best,
lie had labored under much difficulty
because there was no allegation of The
time when the boy was killed. The
State was depending on inference and
man could not be hanged or the prisoner
found guilty on inference. The bulk of
the evidence harmonized but the testi
mpny of one or two witnesses would
have to be rejected. The only question
in the case was whether Blackburn
killed the boy. 1t was not for the Jury
10 determine whether iIinesley or some
body else killed him but whether, from
the evidence, blackburn did ii. The
only possible evidence of Blackburn
having u motive for killing the boy was
him being forbidden the Gardiner house.
There was no expression of malice
because Of this, however, and there was
no evidence that he really was forbidden
the house. There also was no evidence
that he had spite against the child or his
parents. When the corpse was found
Blackburn was simply overcome with
grief and horror because the boy
was dead. The affection between the
two made it absolutely inconsistent for
him to kill the boy. The conduct Of
Blackburn every hour of October 14th
and 18TH made ii inconsistent for him to
have committed the crime. There was
cured TO make him depart from the
even tenor of his way. MIR. Ward
asserted that Blackburn's dream re-
suited from his thoughts of the boys
disappearance and from his sister urging
him TO search the cans for the child, and
III illustration, wanted 10 read extracts
from Myth and Science" which, he
said, is a scientific work, published by
the Appletons. lie merely desired, he
explained, to show the phenomena Of
dreams Mr. Biggs protested, aud after u
| protracted discussion the attorney gen
erals objection was sustained. MIR. Ward
was informed, however, that he could
express his own theory of dreams, which
| he did. Backburn's dream, he argued,
was most natural. He dreamed there
| was blood on the railroad tracks and
there was not. His dream merely led
him to investigate the whereabouts of
| the missing child. The fact that lie told
his dream to'McKegney the afternoon of
| October l4th wasa great point for the de-
| fence. Poor old Tom Hmesley with one
foot in the grave, had in an attempt to
shield his son testified that at this par
ticular time Blackburn was elsewhere
and had been fatty contradicted Out
of pity for the old man he would not
dwell longer on this point. Mr.. Ward
| had not finished at ! O'Clock, when re-
cess for an hour and half was taken.
During argument the prisoners father,
wife, one of his sisters and his infant
son, who is named after the murdered
Eddie, sat Immediately in front of the
1 dock. Mrs. Gardiner, mother of the
deceased, was in the midst Ct the audi
ence and TO better hear she stood al
most the entire time.
TAdditi0nat court neles on Ghh paa.l