Morning journal and courier., 1893-07-14
THE JURY DISAGREED.

The Culmination of the Ray Trial in
 the Superior Court-The Jury Said
 to Have stood to for Acquittal-
 Judge WheeIer,s Charge Against she
 Prisoner - Attorney Cases Able
 Argument.
 In this court yesterday the case of the
 state against William O. Ray, charged
 with assaulting five-year-old Jennie Dirgy | was concluded, the jury being unable to
 agree upon a verdict. Upon good au- | thority, however, 1t was ascertained that
 the jury stood to In favor of scquittal. | The charge of Judge Wheeler was, 1t is
 said, strongly against the accused. When court opened in the morning Alt | torney Chase for the defense closed his | argument, which he had commenced We'd | nesday afternoon. He was followed by | Attorney Case, who made most eloquent l and able argument for his client, after | which the closing argument for the state
 was made by Attorney Doolittle. After this Judge Wheeler delivered his charge to | the jury. It was strongly In favor of the prosecution and much against Ray. The | case was given to the jury at 2:30 o'clock, | and at 3:30 o'clock the jury returned, an- nounced their inability to agree and were | dismissed from the further consideration of the case. The court room was thronged l with people st the trial, and while the jury
 were out deliberating many fingered to hear the result.
 MT. Cases argument set forth his clients
 interests in his usual convincing manner.
 In beginning MT. Case said '1f con-
 suited my own inelinstions in this matter T,l f-11r
 any argument is necessary. There Is but
 8 single thing for you to do under your
 oaths, and that is to acquit this man. l
 have long ceased to consider my own in
 clinations, and I consider 1t incumbent
 upon me to say all that I can on the sub
 jeet of my clients innocence. shall ask
 the court to charge that every man brought
 to the bar is presumed to be innocent and | on level with yourselves. Not only does
 the law presume that he Is absolutely in-
 nocent but it requires that the state shall bear the burden of proofs and shall prove beyond & reasonable doubt that he is
 guilty. You have no business to compro- mise with your conscience"
 Continuing, he said: "We find at the outset a most hideous offense charged , against this man-one which if proven
 stains & mans life and blasts him, as 1t
 ought to do. It casts him out among the . brutes. No lawyer of honor, for sll the 1 money in all the restaurant businesses in 8 I the world, would come into the court and
 defend man whom he believed guilty of
 l such an offense.
 'This case stands upon the story of lit- f tie Jennie Dirgy, stripped of all verbage. - Isn't 1t true that if you can't believe her 0 1 that you can't convict that man? Who is
 she? She says that she is five years old B but have you any evidence in regard to sI hot 1oru ;Ioo hor In "a e to admission of evidence"
 :. Mir. Case then read from several suthori ties in regard to the age of witnesses. He @ argued that the child was too young to un ;, derstand the nature of an oath, and resi rules governing the admission of the evi g dence of small children. These rules pro vided that the child must have some ide' # misdeeds, etc. ..'Fhis child didn't indi cate," continued Mir. Case, "by any sign a word or action that she knew the natur of sn oath. She never went to Sunds, school or day school, and can't read. Sh s ssys that she says her prayers, but wh' she prays to nobody knows. I ask you y honor to charge the jury on this point ant ]. also as to what weight they may attach t | take the testimony with caution.
 u "What is this story upon which this cas
 stands? l gay this story standing itself le false se-preposterously false. The whol ie question of whether this man shall go bac st to prosperous life or whether he shall g ot in stripes down to ignominy, rests upo IL what credence is given to this child
 story. Here Is young man twenty fv E. years old, whc in this time of trial ca
 summon citizens from the highest walks c re life to testify to his good character. The e- all say that he ia an exceptionally quie, 10 good young man.
 "Hera Is this child's story. She ws y sitting on her mothers steps in broad day ce light in the middle of the afternoon, whe Id | this man came up the sidewalk, and steE y, ping up directly to her-s perfect strange whom she never saw before-hs asks he ce If she wants some candy. What was sAi ,g in reply is not clear. The e1ult is that b h. ! walks on and she gets up and follows hir
 into the cemetery. They pass into th ao cemetery and he calls and beckons to hel ne He clasped her hand, In the broad dayligh ke l when the cemetery is more or less crowded ,e ard be marched her to the edge of th
 cemetery, kneeled down and went throug IS with what the child says he did. She the re looked down and in the highway, not te e, feet away, she eaw coming a man an nj | woman. This phenomenal story teller tel p' you this. If you are going to swallow an ne of this you must swallow it all. Laughter 70 MT. Doolittle wants you to bite off certai ad portions of 1t and throw them away" ;. "This little girl is here to swear away tt liberty of this man. She's child eviden ge ly of the curbstone or the gutter. She hi
 a mother who couldn't be trusted upon tf It. witness stand by the state. She has Q, father, Fred Dirgy, whom she calls NJ ss Gear. am not permitted to go into h. v- antecsdents. There is no wilder liar in u he world than little girl under the rod of a y. infuriated and vixen mother. She is the as a little animal. Something has been sal sn about instinctive female purity. I hoI ve this is not an evidence of it. She coul r. have put out her hand and secured rescu he She didn't do it. She took the five cent st though. Instead of running home st at went directly by her mothers house, an h. l after getting her candy she went hom tn Her mother whipped her for going to tt 70. cemetery, and then the child told this sto1