The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-12-23
Prosecutor Whites Plea to
the Olive Picker Jury
ARGUMENT CONCLUDED
yERICT MUST EITHER ACQUIT
or CONVICT ANDERSON.
eEFENSE DENIES ANY MOT We FOR CRIME


eence--Prisoner Arranged With
Sclthing ectise--The Jury Out.
Norfolk. Va, Dec. 22.-The third day
Of the tria of John Anderson in the
Federal court upon the charge of muir
dering VIM. Wallace Saunders, mate
evidence all in and argument COM
pleted. The case went to the jury at
half past 5 O'clock ana court adjourned
until 10 o'clock tomorrow. The general
Impression is that verdict viii be
reached in a comparatively short time
and that that verdict will be guilty as
charged in the Indictment though
whether THE jury will avail itself of the
privilege affixing the without capital
1unis'am6 MT" clause, cannot be predicted.
OF course there is 4 possibility Of an
xcquittal but this is considered extreme
ly remote Under the ruling of the
SQUIRT the jury must either find Ander-
son guilty, as charged in the indict-
alent, or not guilty. There can be no
verdict Of marslaughter.
The prisoner was dramatic to the
Rst and just before the district attorney
concluded his closing argument, tell
ing the jury that if Anderson had been
innocent be would have adopted another
course. the accused man sprang to his
feet, saying: Il am innocent, Mr..
White and had to be forcibly pulled
back into his chair by the court
bailiff
The morning was consumed in the
hearing Of argument on instructions, the
district attorney contending that there
was no evidence whatever to Justify the
plea of self defense, therefore the ele-
ment Of manslaughter must be elimi-
mated from the case; the defense claim
ing that the court in it's charge should
instruct the jury TO consider the hypo-
thesis Of manslaughter as well as mur-
der. Judge Golf charged the jury at
some length and with great fairness,
Instructed them, that if they should
and 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
Hypothesis whereby they could. with the
evidence before them. find any excuse
for the crime, the verdict must be ac-
suittal
Argument was begun at o'clock,
District Attorney White speaking for an
hour and half in opening. In his ar
gument he emphasized the claim that
the government had proven its case by
the testimony of the prisoner himself:
he ridiculed the idea of the crime having
been committed in self-defense, saying
that a burglar might as well make the
8Ime claim should be be shot by a man
who was trying to cbstruct his entrance
% a house.
Mr.. Mcintosh, for the defense, spoke
only three-quarters of an hour. He
commented upon the failure of the gov
eminent to prove a motive for the MUIR
der, saying the only motive there could
have been was self defense. The gov
ernment's witnesses, he said, in trying
to swear the blame from themselves had
made scape-goat of the cook.
He argued that when Anderson went
forward after killing the captain, it was
not with the intention of killing the
mate; but that, 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 Anderson when asked
for protection, that he would be killed
anyhow, and required 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 his closing
argument, dissected the theory of the
defense. He arraigned the prisoner
with scathing invective. In one of his
flights of oratory, he asked the jury il,
In the face of the evidence, they could
believe the prisoner an innocent man.
Anderson arose and excitedly exclaim-
ed: II am an innocent man, Mr.. White. "
The crime of Anderson, Mr.. White
said, was without an extenuating cir
eumstance. The defendant had taken
life without mercy, and il he should be
Judged without mercy, the jury would
be executing a divine law.
1t was half past 5 o'clock when Mr..
White closed his argument, and the
ease was given to the jury.