The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-27

same law that indirectly caused me to be
hurled into eternity without a moments
warming
Frank Redmond at the time he was shot
down like dog, remember, was within the
thority of the State, and was, at the mo-
ment he was shot, just as much a Teace
officer, as If he had worn a badge and blue
his authority to arrest. Had Burton shot
the man he attempted to rob- under our
statute and under this evidence, there
would have been no alternative FOR this
jury but TO find him guilty of murder in
the first degree, and having killed the man
that stood in the place of old man Eldridge,
having killed the man that sought to le-
dress the wrong of old man Eldridge, and
not his own wrongs, he cannot and should
not be heard to say, i did not intend to
kill that man. for being an unlawful and
Wrongdoer, the law steps in and says:
Burton, the weapon you used was deadly
weapon it's use produced DEATH and the
law says to him: Malice purpose and in
tent to kill must be inferred against you,
for you are bound TO know and intend the
natural and probable consequences of your
own unlawful acts, and further If, in plan
ming this robbery, you went prepared to
rob and, if need be, to Kill, then, Burton
you had time to resolve and deliberate
upon your acts, and II you killed any hui
man being under such circumstances, either
while you We're attempting to rob or to es-
cape therefrom, you must sufrer the llie
penalty or, in the discretion of the jury,
hang for you are guilty of murder in the
first degree, as charged in this Indictment
THE FERMENTATION THERE.
"The law steps in and says further to
Burton: If, when you came out of that
door you saw q man standing there, a citi-
zen, and had the presence of mind to draw
your gun and resolved to use it, if you fell
in the alley and looked back with gun in
hand, got up, recognized that you were
pursued by citizen, and ran distance of
130 feet or more, resolved to kill; If, during
any of this space of time, either in or out
side of that storeroom, you found an in
tent to kill--no matter how soon thereafter
you shot and killed any citizen-then there
need be no appreciable space of time be-
tween the formation of the intent to XIII
and the killing. They may be as inStan-
taneous as successive thoughts, and II
formed but moment before II IS just as
much premeditation as II formed ten years
before" /"
Here Mr.. Wiltsie cited several authorities
and then declared that the state had estab-
lished the guilt of the defendant by three
classes of evidence-circumstan direct
and positive. and by the defendants own
evidence, he said, made a complete chain,
which he showed by again going over the
testimony of this KIND. He followed the
strange man from his coming TO Indian
apolis from Cincinnati with Collins, all
along the line to his imprisonment at Nash
identification by the persons who saw the
strange man at various places IN his flight
from the scene of the murder. The positive
evidence of Pruitt OFT, Kile, Cassidy,
to Splann were taken up and treated briefly
and then Mr.. Wiltse appealed to the jury
to find the defendant guilty of murder or to
acqut him. 1t would be a travesty on JUS
tice to find him guilty of anything else.
Mr.. Virgins, Hancock county's prose
cutting attorney, followed Mr.. Wiltsie. He
urged that the jury remember well what
Mr.. Witsie had said. The presumption of
innocence, he said. was thrown around the
Of he of no
and until the instructions Of the court are
received He took it that the matters of
fact would not be disputed by the defense
except the states claim of premeditation
and malice He then took up the story of
the crime and reviewed the evidence. He
thought old man Bird or William Pruitt
they made any effort to stop Burton. Mr..
Virgins thought Captain Splanns testi-
mony, in which he related Burtons con-
fession, was convincing. 1t was clinching
evidence, following the absolutely perfect
train of circumstantial evidence, and the
positive statements of Philip Kile and Will
liam Pruitt. The state did not have to de-
pend alone upon circumstantial evidence,
nor upon circunstantial evidence and posi-
tive direct testimony but the case was
made out from both these classes of evil
dence and Burton's own admissions as well.
Mr.. Virgins spoke thirty-five minutes.
FOR THE DEFENSE.
Charles Downing, of counsel for the de-
fense, began the argument for the accused.
and that all the responsibility rested with
the jury. The attorneys and court could
not feel the responsibility as would the
jurors The verdict would stand for all
time unless set aside by higher court.
His Honor, the judge had not the power
to set it aside as in civil case.
"Will you gentlemen he asked "allow
any extraneOus matter come into this case?
Will you let any such grand-stand per-
formances as were enacted here affect your
verdict? l never saw such performance
as was enacted here by the gentleman who
represents the prosecutor of Hancock coun-
ty as L saw here before the evidence was
heard. have been watching such cases
for twenty-five years. He did it to preju-
lice your minds before you snoud hear
the evidence, so that the evidence might be
colored as it impressed itself in you
minds"
Mr.. Downing insisted that the minds of
the jurors ought to be free from cOnclu-
defendant until the juryrOom was reached.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty, and
the indictment. granted to him the pre-
sumption that he was innocent. He spent
some time explaining to the jury the mag
nitude of its dignity. power and RESPONSE
bility-how much higher it stood In its
not even his Honor on the bench" He
cautioned the jurors not to allow any
to aes % fhg bsm ffed % Frank *
Mrs. and Miss Redmond, mother and sister
of the murdered man. The speaker said
he could SympathiZe with them. but sym
pathy could not or should not affect
judgment. The jury should administer the
law, and if there was sympathy to extend
Burton ought to come in for a full share
of it.
Mr.. Downing said the three theories of
the State were all poor and showed the
State doubted Burton's guilt. The first
theory was q chain of circumstantial evil
dence, the second direct evidence and the
third confession drawn from the ac-
cused after his brain had been fired with
whisky He then took up the question of
reasonable doubt and read a number of
authorities. He insisted that it was not
was not guilty but that the State must
have proved the defendant guilty beyond
q reasonable doubt.
Mr.. Downing took up the three theories
OF the State and discussed them separatelv
The direct evidence-that of Job Ecldridge
William Pruitt, w. c. Bird, G. b. OFT and
Philip Kile-was unreliable. He called at
tention to the alleged fact that job Ed
ridge, the man who had the best oppor-
claimed TO recognize the voice of one of the
men as that of Carl Harvey. From the tes-
tlmony, Collins might have been the muir
uerer. 1t might be a case of mistaken
Identity. IF in after years." said Mr.
Downing, Frank Collins, on his death bed
should confess to this murder, the thought
that either of you had participated in send
ing TINS man to the gallows would haunt
you all the days of your lives''
OLD MAN BIRDS TESTIMONY.
The speaker thought little reliance should
be put in old man Birds testimony. that
he declared i'm Police Court tba+ - o..,,