The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-10-15
S S S
THE CASE OF LORENZO FOSTER
FIR. Hicks Writes in justification of
the Verdict of the Jury-Says Their
Action Was Based Squarely Upon
ho oxu

r1r. Hicks Writes in Justification of
the Verdict of the Jury-Says Their
Action Was Based Squarely Upon
the Law.
EDITOR GOLD LEAF:-Some people who
did not hear the sworn testimony of
the witnesses AID the arguments of cOun-
sci and the JUDGES charge, are oil the
opinion that Lorenzo Foster should have
been convicted OF murder in the first de-
gree. By such it should be recalled that
while the old law in force prior to March,
1898, allowed courts and juries to infer
or presume malice elaboration and pre-
meditation from the fact of a homicide
with a deadly weapon, at that time the
law OF North Carolina was changed, d.
viding murder into two degrees. By
that act Of 1893 it is provided that all
murder committed by poison, starving,
lying in wait, or by any other wilful, de-
liberate and premeditated murder, or
which shall be committed in the perpe-
tration or attempt to perpetrate any
felony Chat is any penitentiary offence)
shall be murder in the first degree, and
all other cases of murder shall be murder
in the second degree.
The Supreme Court, constituting this
law, WHICH IL udS uOle Blk VI llille6
since March, 1899 declares that now,
the jury as against human life, is not al
lowed to infer or presume elaboration
or generalization or that the act was
done in an attempt to commit a felony;
but that unless the elaboration or pre-
meditation or the attempt to commit a
felony is proved by the State beyond q
reasonable doubt, the jury can not find
a prisoner guilty of murder in the first
degree, but in the second degree only.
True, the court says it requires no length
OF time after the elaboration Or premed-
itation and before the killing to make it
murder in the first degree. aud attempt
to commit felony and This elaboration
and generalization may be proved as
we'll by the surrounding circumstances
if they exist as by the words o" acts
of the accused, but it always holds
that the deliberation and premedi-
tation must be proved to have occurred
or it is murder in the second dtgree only.
This law was applied to the facts of Lor
renzO Fosters case as proved by the
State, which were briefly: That he went
to the house of Carrie Falkner and asked
to hire her that she called him fool and
then cursed him and that he knocked her
down with the axe and then struck her
four or five ticks more.
If it should be asked to name cases OF
murder in the first degree, name those
specified in the act above quoted, and
such as where 2 killing follows threats to
kill, the providing or preparing Of
weapons, or in breaking into house or
an attempt to steal, &c.
The civilized world is growing more
careful of taking human life. Every State
in the Union enacted this law Of 1898 be-
fore North Carolina did. The world rec
ognizes, says the Court, a vast difference
between the facts of this case, or murder
in the second degree and OF a case of
murder by poisoning or starving, or tor
ture or other cases where fixed pur-
pose to kill is proved to have existed for
u long time previous.
That such horrible crime should have
occurred among us is greatly to be de-
plored, but that jury has been found
OF Intelligent, upright and courageous
and honest men who so far disregarded
passion and prejudice and popular SEN
timent as to be governed by the law of the
land is the browning glory of our age
and time. 7. I. HICKS.
Oct 18th, 1896.