Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-02
AT THE MERCY OF THE JURY Holmes Submitted No Testimony
 in Defense. IT WAS A DESPERATE MOVE But He Hopes to Influence the Jury by
 Doing It. THE TRIAL DEVOID OF SENSATIONS The Defense Thinks the State Has Not Made Out Its Case Against the Pris-
 oner, But He May Get Bad
 ly Fooled.
THE TRIAL DEVOID OF SENSATIONS

Philadelphia, Nov. 1-Holmes today threw himself upon the mercy of the jury. When the commonwealth closed its case this afternoon his attorneys announced that they considered the prosecution had not made out it's charge of murder and they would rest their case upon the evil dence offered by the commonwealth and submit no testimony in defense of the prisoner. This decision was made by Holmes upon the advice of well known lawyer, who was at one time retained by the prisoner The move seemed like a bold one, but was unquestionably done more in desperation in the hope of in fluencing the jury and creating the im- pression in their minds that being con- scious of his innocence, and not having had time to prepare a proper defense, Holmes trusted himself to their own sense of justice. In reality, Holmes has no defense. Not witness has appeared for him and his black record would tell terribly against him even if he were able to offer something like substantial proof that he did not kill Pietzel The com monwealth presented no direct proof that Holmes murdered Pietzel. Their chain of circumstantial evidence even was not as strong as was expected, and but for the admissions at various times Of Holmes himself the district attorney would have had a most difficult task in proving the charge That the common wealth hesitated to arralgn Holmes for murder until the discovery of the bodies of the Pietzel children Is well known. When the bodies were found the district attorney was then convinced that Holmes killed Pietzel, and that the murder of the children was the direct outcome of the | r,f the children were unearthed and Holmes made his admission that he had been alone in the house with the dead body of Pietzel MT. Graham was satisfied and brought the accused man to trial. It was exepected that the case would be sen- sational, but after Judge Arnold ruled out all the evidence bearing upon the murder of the children thermost ghastly features of Holmes series of crimes were eliminated. Instead of furnishing a sen sation the trial itself has been as dull and uninteresting to the spectators in the court as the majority of ordinary murder cases are. But two incidents out of the theory have broken the monotony of the proceedings. These were the ap- pearance upon the stand of Mrs. Pietzel and her pathetic tale of her journey with Holmes and the testifying against the prisoner of the girl that he deceived into believing that she was his legal wife.
 But nine witnesses were called to the stand today The defense this morning had decided that they would attempt to prove that Pietzel committed suicide and was not murdered. Expert testimony bearing upon this theory introduced by Graham must have shown the attorneys for Holmes that the defense they had outlined would require greater resources to maintain than they had at their com mand. They further made two blunders today. Mrs. Pietzel was recalled to the stand to identify some articles of cloth- ing belonging to her husband, and under cross-examination the defense attempted to show that she was perfectly cognizant of the scheme to Swfndle the insurance company and made the journeys she took with Holmes. She was trying to avoid arrest for her share in it and was not seeking her children. MT. Graham resented the form of examination indig- nantly and accused the defense of at tempting to add to the woman's already heavy burden of grief. He showed by the witness statements that although ar rested for conspiracy no indictment was ever brought against her, and that she was discharged because there was no ev- idence showing that she had any direct connection with the swindle.
 The questions of the attorney for the defense brought tears to the eyes of the broken-hearted woman, and her appear ance excited the sympathy of all. When
 
 into the corridor she was attacked by nervous fit, and her screams rang through the room. The defense's second lblunder was in endeavoring to elicit from Miss Yohe the opinion that she still believed herself to be the legal wife of Holmes. When MT. Graham saw the drift of the questions being asked, he asked the witness to tell the entire story of how Holmes had deceived her in the marriage and the lies and deception he had practiced upon her. During this re- cital Holmes became confused and hung his head in shame-faced manner. Just before recess was taken MT. Graham an- nounced that the prosecution had closed it's case. During the recess Holmes con- suited his lawyers, and when they came to court MT. Rotan boldly asked Judge Arnold to either discharge the prisoner on the ground that the commonwealth had not made out case against him, or else charge the jury to acquit him. This Judge Arnold refused to do. Then they asked for continuance for at least three or four hours in which to prepare their evidence Judge Arnold refused to grant them this much time, but gave them half an hour. They retired with the prisoner, and upon their return MT. Ro- tan announced that they would rest their case upon the evidence of the com monwealth. He said they were satisfied that the prosecution had not proven the charge of murder and they were willing to go to the jury without calling any witnesses It was then arranged that the closing arguments on both sides should begin tomorrow, and the court adjourned for the day. The closing argument and the charge of the judge will probably consume the better part of tomorrow, but the case will in all likelihood be given to the jury tomorrow afternoon.