The Portland daily press., 1895-01-31
LEWIS OR GRAFFAM.
Both We're Declared llurd-
ererS.
lIurd-
ABLE ARGUMENTS OF MESSRS.
SEIDERS AND POWERS.

The Jury Must Decide Today Which Man
Was Denounced Most Reasonably-A
Great Deal Was Said On Both Sides
and 1t Was Well Said.
There was the same dense and eager
crowd on the corridors of the City Build
ing outside the gate Wednesday morning,
but the attendance in the court room
was not nearly so large as during the
days of the giving of testimony. 1t was
fully an half hour after ten O'Clock be-
fore Mr.. Seiders began his closing argu-
ment. He said tina. he had severe cold,
which would make it difficult for him
to address the jury.
He said that this murder case was more
important in many respects than any
that he had ever known to be tried be-
fore that bar.
The life Of man is here involved, be-
cause when you take away the life-liber-
ties of a man you take away his life. He
was glad TO pay tribute to the able and
careful county attorney and the able
and entirely fair attorney general, and
was glad to say that never before had so
important case gone on SO smoothly IN
that court.
He described the situation in the Co.
burn and Lowell households at the time
of the murder, and dwelt upon the fact
that everything was going on there the
same as usual. He would not describe
the premises in detail because the jury
had been there and inspected them. Now
tie State comes forward and charges
this respondent with killing Byron G.
Coburn. OF course there is no discussion
as to the fact that he was killed and
that it was the most reYolting, most
wicked murder, and thatsjs why this
case has been given SO much ploininence.
Now, am going to start and give TO
you the facts as they occurred, and as
tbey have been put ins here I'M aEidence.
Let us start at fiye o'clpcl2 that evening.
This respondent had been to- Portland
and returned to the Coburn House about
sUpper time They had waited supper
tor him. Mrs. KimbalI says it was only
a few minutes after five O'Clock when
they sat down. But it cannot be fully
established as to just when they did sit
down to supper. They all testify that
they all sat down together, except Cole
man, who says that Mrs. Kimball did
not sit down. This simply shows that
parsons cannot grasp all that passes
around them. They may think they dc.
vet the frailUy of the human mind is
such that l.lan may be mistaken. And
this fact will be Of Importance later.
Having eaten supper Coburn and Cole
man attended to the chores. The i'm
portant thing Is when they came back.
Coburn came in first. Immediately
after this respondent, according to Gus
tom. went across the road. Coleman fol-
lowed. Now we have the
FIRST TANGIBLE, FIXED TIME.
AS Coleman went around the house
the whistle blew for six O'Clock. That is
undisputed and that time is fixed.
Now I ask the question here. When
was Coburn killed? The state must claim,
under their own testimony, that il this
murder was committed by this respon-
dent it must have. been done in the
peighborhood of seven O'clock. We deny
this and we viii show you why. The
State has put Mrs. Kimball heie, who
ought to know more than anybody, and
she states that after "a ittles household
( work, which took but short time, she
; heard t5is noise at fhen barn. lmme-
diately Mr.. Cohurp got up and went out.
{ Now if you believe Mrs. Kimball it is
impossible to fix that time th at he went
TO the barn as at O'Clock. You must
THROW MRS. KIMBALL RIGHT OUT
of the case if you say that the murder
occurred at z O'Clock. Hence I say that
the State is unable TO prove that it was
committed at about z o'clock. AS soon
as Coburn goes out she sees him going
toward the barn, and then takes an
apple and sits down and eats it, and
then in the neigh borhood ef five minutes
she looked cut of the window again and
sees no light.
Now when was Cohurn killed? Co.
burn received his death blow within
three minutes after the time he left that
house. There is no other reasonable ex-
planation of The testimony than that Mr.
Coburn must have
BEEN DEAD BEFORE HALF PAST
SIX.
In that connection 1 want to bring out
the fact that Mrs. Kim ball looked out OF
the window twice and heard no noise
and saw no light either time. The sec
ond time she looked with the express
purpose Of finding something, but she
found no indication that anybody was
about the barn.
Now we will pass to the evidence about
the Lowell house, because that was
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