The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-12-24
IN THE HANDS OF THE JURY
CLOSING SCENES In A FAMOUS
MURDER TRIAL
In the Andersen Murder Trial The Case is
Closed and the Jury Have Retired to
Make Up Their Verdict-Judgo Charges
the Jury That 1t il Murder or Justifiable
Homicide-lhe Defendant Dramatically
Interrupts the Speech of the District At
torney

Norfolk, Va, December 22.-The
third day of the trial of John Ander-
sen in the federal court upon the
charge of numbering Mate Saunders,
of the schooner Olive Pecller, sees the
evidence all in and argument complet-
ed. The case went to the jury at $50
O'Clock and court adjourned until 10
O'Clock tomorrow. The general impress
sion is that a verdict will be reached
in a comparatively short time and that
the verdict will be guilty as charged
in the indictment, though whether The
jury will avail itself of tine privilege
affixing the without capital punish
ment' clause, cannot be predicted Of
course there is a possibility of an ac-
quIttal, but this is considered extreme
ly remote. Under the ruling of the
court the jury must either find Ander-
sen guilty, as charged in the indiGt-
ment or not guilty. There can be no
verdict of manslaughter.
The prisoner was dramatic to the last
and just before the DISCREET attorney
concluded his closing argument and
telling the jury that if Andersen mad
been innocent he would have adopted
another course, the accused man
Sprang to his feet, saying, Il am in
nOcent, Mr.. White" and had to- be
forcbby pulled back into his chair by
the court lbailiff.
The morning was consumed in the
hearing of argument on instructions,
the district attorney cOntending that
there was no evidence whatever to JUS
tify the plea of self-defense, therefore
the element of manslaughter must be
eliminated from the case; the defense
claiming that the court in it's charge
should instruct the jury to consider the
hypothesis of manSlaughter as we'll as
murder. Judge Goff charged the jury
"a some length and with great fairness,
1nstructing them that if they should
find the prisoner guilty nothing had
been introduced to lessen the grade of
the crime and the verdict must be
guilty as charged in the Indictment.
If the jury should discover any rational
hypothesis whereby they could with
the evidence before them, find an ex-
cuse for the crime, the verdict must be
acquittal.
Argument was begun at 2 O'Clock,
District Attorney White speaking for
an hour and a. half in opening. In his
the governemnt had proved it's case by
the testimony of the prisoner himself.
he ridiculed the idea OF the crime hav-
ing been committed in self-defense,
saying that burglar might as well
make the same claim should he shoot
a man who was trying to obstruct his
entrance to a house.
Mr. Mcintosh spoke for the defense
only three-QuarterS of an hour He
commented upon the failure of the gov
ernment to prove a motive for the muir
der, saying the only motive there could
GIave been was self-deifense. The gov
ernment's witnesses, he said, in trying
to swear the blame from themselves
had made a scape goat of the cook.
He argued that when Andersen went
forward after killing the captain, it
was not with the intention of killing
the mate. The man seeing the mate APP
preaching him with a deadly weapon
in his hand, about to make an assault
the only recourse open to the defendant
was to take the mates life to save his
Own.- He laid great stress upon the
mates reply to Andersen when asked
for protection, that he would be killed
anyhow and recurred to it time and
again, as language calculated to put
the prisoner in fear that the mate in
tended to kill him or do him bodily
harm. He spoke forty minutes.
District Attorney White, in closing
his argument, discussed the theory of
the defense. He arraigned the prison.
er with scathing invective.