The herald., 1895-09-14
Opinions of Legal Lights on
the Subject
HE WILL PROBABLY HANG
II Conviction Is Secured, the Double
Murderer Is Doomed
But Little Sympathy Is Expressed Toward
the Negro. Whose Effort to Get Work
Cost Two Human Lives

"To hang or not to hang is the ques.
tion that has perplsxsd many minds
since reading the accounts of the Busby
poisoning as published fully in The Her
aid. Whether the negro poisoner, If con-
victed of killing the two men that drank
the wine intended for the porter. Gard
ner. Is guilty OF murder or Of manslaugh-
ter. remains to be decided.
Certainly aIy one reading Of the COM
mission of the heinous crime can have
little doubt of the authors moral cul-
pabilIty, but then there are legal propo .
sitions involved that may save Busby
from the gallows.
A Herald representative visited the
Offices of II large number of prominent
criminal lawyers of this city yesterday
af fternoon and secured expressions OF
opi nion from them that appear beowsss I,
the maj jority of instances the opinions
were adverse to the criminal and nearly
all arguments were based on the same
sections of the civil code. A few attorneys
held different views, however and main
tain that. with proper legal talent at his
service. the negro will yet outlive his
captors. None of the legal lights, with
lew exceptions, care to append their
uames to their opinions, as they may,
perhaps, become interested in the case
personally.
As has been said, the prevailing opin-
ion is to the effect that Busby, il convict
ed, will stand before the public as muy-
derer with little or no excuse for the
deed he is said to have committed. 'H e
is just as guilty as if he had fired ten
buckshot into your body. He has claimed
that he only intended to make the porter
sick. Well, perhaps a handful Of bullets
n n
my opinion, the negro, il guilty, is a
murderer. and that in the first degree"
The concurring idea was ably voiced
by Judge ]. H. f. Variel, whose record as
prosecuting attorney. before he took
up civil law, is we'll known. He said
The evidence of malice is shown by the
use of poison.
THE law says that If person is killed
by another one who is at the time en-
gagged In the commission of a felony,
murder in the first degree has been done I.
Section 1S7 of the penal code says that
murder is. the unlawful killing of a human
being. with malice aforethought. In the
note 1t says that ii person attack an
other with intent to 90 him an injury,
and then is ifo-ced TO kill the person he
has assaulted, in self defense, he is guilty
of murder.
''All MURDER perpetrated by means of
poison =. 3. .. is m urder In. the first
degree. Premeditation is presumed by
the purchase of poison and the placing of
1T in the way of others. Shooting at one
person with intent to kill and killing
another by the shot is nevertheless mur-
der. Section 216 of the code gives the
following:
Every person who with intent to kill
adm ministers or causes to be adm Mustered
poison. any noxious drug, is guilty of
felony and is punishable by not more
than ten years imprisonment in the
state prison.
"Section 347 says: Any person who
unlawfully mingles poison with food or
drink that the same shall be taken by
any human being, to his injury, shall be
guilty of a felony.
"Now, you see, according to the pre-
vious section this particular action of
Busby resulted in the death of two men.
1t was felony resulting in killing. and
is therefore murder in the first degree.
Further. the code says. section 1S7: If
an unlawful act be done deliberately and
with the intention of doing mischief, and
death ensues, it is murder
Several other attorneys, however, held
different views of the case, and one of
them said:
''Busby is certainly guilty of an at
tempt to commit crime. and one that
may be called felony, but the killing
of those two white men has nothing to
do with his intent to 10 the porter an in
jury. | certsinly do not think him any
more guilty OF murder than l would my
self if two mon broke into my -house and
drank bottle of poison l had in my
closet. They did not know what ii was
and drank it, thinking it was harmless.
The risk was their own and the result