The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-03-15

THAT SWEET Boox-rRrAL by JURY.


commenced the little court house of Sag
Harbor was by no means large enough to
contain half the people who came from
all the country around to attend it. From
the neigh borhOOd in which the murder
had been committed, they seemed to have
come in a body. Old acquaintance,
neighbors, friends of the prisoner, who
had known him since he was child; who
had heard as fresh the news that his
father, William Hackett, had been swept
overheard from a wbaler's yard-arm and
lost In gale. and VINO had seen the
drowned mans little orphan boy grow up
TO young manhood among them-were
present by dozens: yet among them all
one could hardly hear few faint express
slons OF sympathy for him, or hope for
the demonstration of his innocence
There is nothing for which ignorant peo-
pie, particularly rustics, are so ready as
the acceptance OF the guilt of person &C
cused legally of crime. Nothing they
resent so deeply as what they believe 10
be an attempt TO deceive them by false
assumption OF innocence. The discovery
of the marked handkerchief in his posses
sion had been, to their narrow minds, con-
elusive evidence of Dorn's guilt and each
deemed his intelligence, that Dorm had,
just before that discovery. BETRAYED him
into q temporary fear that they might not
have the right man after all
Deacon Harkins who, by the way had
tried 10 have Dorm. as a child, lndentured
to him by the county overseer of the poor,
Rs soon as he heard of the drowning OF
the lads father-a slavery from which
the boy was saved by the kindness of a
good old man. long since dead was prom
inent in the crowd about the court house,
quoting texts and Wanting the fore
sight with which he had always looked
forward to seeing that young men come 10
a bad end" Aunt Thatcher was, OF course,
present, and-as might have been eX-
pected-vindictivelye xu.tant. Mary Wal
lace, having been summoned as a witness
by the prosecution, was compelled to at
tend, and made her way through the
throng to the county clerks office, be-
meath the courtroom, where she was given
a seat to await until she should be called.
Happily there was still humanity enough
among the rough people who were eagerly
awaiting the conviction OF her lover TO
prompt some little sympathetic feeling for
her; and as she went by they at least re-
Trained from saying in her hearing shat
they hoped Dorm Hackett would be
hanged. Aunt Thatcher was incapable of
such delicGcy and reserve. She had been
saving daily and almost hourly since she
had heard of his arrest, and che continued
to say it now, loudly too. until the dis
gusted county clerk ordered her to keep
quiet or get out OF his office, to which she
had forced her way with Mary.
There was little diffiulty in getting a
jury, for in those days fewer newspapers
1 l..
sought to escape jury duty by deliberately
forming and expressing opinions relative
to the guilt or innocence of the accused"
in advance Of the trial; ana, above all,
lawyers had not yet developed, as they
they since have, the science of delay at
that point in the proceedings. Twelve
good men and true" we're selected-per-
haps a sample dozen as juries go. One or
them heard with great difficulty; two
kept yawning and dropping asleep from
time TO time; a fourth belied his looks if
he was not at least semi-idiotic; three
were manifestly weak. simple minded per-
sons devoid of moral force and easy to in
luence by a strong will, and the remain
ing five were evidently men vino doubt
less meant to do right, but were obstinate
to the verge of pig-headedness, and
showed. by the countenances wi TN which
Lncl EcEdEucN bhdb bhoN
were already inimical TO him. And before
this Jury of his peers" Dorm Hacket
stood TO be tried for his life.
Ii would be time and space lost TO re-
cite the thrilling opening speech OF the
prosecuting attorney; to tell how wildly
he depicted the horrors of the crime that
had been perpetrated; how artlully he
seemed, by word and gesture, 10 con-
meet the prisoner with the crime at every
stage of its progress how scornfully he
dwelt upon "the absurd story by which
tn Q murderer had sought to explain away
the damning proofs against him, and
which his counsel might have the audaci
ty to ask this intelligent jury TO believe"
etc. Ii was more like a closing than an
opening speech, aud when it was ended
five of the jury looked as il they were sat
lstied that the proper thing to do would
be to take the prisoner right out and hang
him 10 one OF the big elms beside the
court house.
Mr.. Dunn's heart eank within him.
What had be to make Roadway with
against that speech. before those five men
and with that fatal marked handkerchief
ever fiuttering before his eyesP
The hearing OF the witnesses for the
state continued slowly all the first day.
All that had been sworn to before the
committing magistrate was repeated now,
and there was really very little more, but
that little was adroitly handled. and the
] temper OF the Jury was to make the most