The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-10-05

SAN FRANCISCO. Oct If the
manner in which the attorneys for the
defense in the trial Of Theodore Dur
rant are handling their case is any
indication of the strength of their pO-
sition, the prosecution believes the de-
velopments of today leave little doubt
Of the prisoners conviction. To the
surprise of everybody the defense this
afternoon began the calling of wit
nesses to show the previous good
character of the young Sunday school
superintendent.
BY the prosecution this step IS in
terpreted t. mean that the defense has
introduced all of the evidence it has to
refute the mass Of testimony piled up
by the people. If this be true, the
verdict of the jury is a fOregOne con-
clusion. Not only has the defense
failed to establish an alibi for Dur
rant, but it has actually strengthened
the case AGAINST the prisoner.
Good For Her.
Miss Cunningham, the newspaper
reporter. who was thredsened with i'm
prisonment yesterday because she
would not answer question pro-
pounded to her by the defense. was
called to the stand this morning and
given another opportunity to answer
the question. She refused to disclose
the source Of her information with re-
gard to Mrs. Leaks testimony, out in
stead Of sending her to prison the
court took the matter under advise
ment until next Tuesday. In a sim
liar case the supreme court of CaHfor-
MIA sustained the position Of a news
paper reporter, and the court is. there
fore. in doubt with regard to its power
IN the premises.
Rev. J. George Gibson, pagtOr OF
Emmanuel Baptist church, was called
by the defense for the purpose Of iden-
tifying specimens of his handwriting
The witness refused positively to iden-
tify any of the specimens handed to
hiTn. He said the writing looked like
his own, but as the documents had not
been in his possession for some time,
If at all, he could not positively identify
the writing. At the request of Attor-
ney Duprey, Rev. Gibson printed the
name and address of Mrs. c. c.. Noble.
Blanche LamOnt's aunt He also wrote
several specimens for the district at
torney. which were introduced in evil
dence. The writing Of Rev. Gibson
will play an important part in the fu-
ture proceedings. as Attorney Duprey
announced in his opening statement
that he would prove that Mr.. Gibson
directed the wrapper in which Blanche
Lamont's rings were returned to Mrs,
Noble.
The defense summoned ex-Congress-
man Henley and several other wit
nesses to show the bad reputation Of
Attorney Quinlan, who testified that
on the afternoon of April 8 he saw
Durrant and Blanche Lamont walking
toward Emmanuel church.
Fifteen witnesses were placed on the
stand to show the previous good repu-
tation of Durrant. The witnesses all
regarded Durrant as model Young
man; not one had ever heard of his do
ing anything wrong. The crOSs-exam.
ination was brief. as the prosecution
expects to have no difficulty in proving
that Durrant's immortality was motor
ious among the lower classes with
whom he often associated.
Summed up briefly. the result of the
first ten days of testimony introduced
by the defense is as follows: DR.. Che
ney failed to testify. a s Attorney Deu-
prey said he would, that Durrant was
present at the lecture given on the af-
ternoon Blanche Lamont was mur~
dered. the prosecution established the
fact that the roll call hook in which
Durrant was recorded present at the
lecture. is unreliable. as another stu
dent is recorded present who testified
that ne was absent. To offset these
two strong points gained 1y the prose-
cutiOn the defense has placed on the
stand sixty-eight students who testi>
fed that they did not answer to Dur
rants name at roll call on April 8.
AS next MOndav is Labor Day in CAL
tfornia, court adjourned until Tuesday,