The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1897-09-02
THE INNOCENT coNvIc2

THE INNOCENT coNvIc3
I Shot While Defending HIS sxas1
Hanged as = afnrdrrer.
appearances deceivifg
! an old lawyer the other day.
strongest case Of eircu1nstanf]
dence / ever knew was aQalI
innocent man Ny father q
lawyer, and Inv the criminal g.
tice. One of his clients was hanged
for murder which he never COM
mitted 81
..;,lg at the edge Of our town.
liz hold man in grand old
he had no family and was
alo4 4h HIS servants. One night . Il
there was a fearful disturbances ii,
his house, and neighbors hurried Id
Several pistol shots had been fiset
The rich old man was Ndead, viii
bullet in his brain, and fffse bSfIer
lay, with his hands fulA Of iewelrv
and watches, right ID the doorwav
of the old man room u, Ii bullef
s son ssa% in his head pt be was
His revolver lay byhis side, and
so far as could be seen, the whole
story was told right there. The
butler, who had been in the house
only about six months, had at
tempted to rob his master, had been
caught in the act and shot, but had
killed the old man in the fight.
That was the only translation ofIit,
and there was no other for several
days, because the butler had very
serious wound and was delirious for
week. However, it was not fatal
and as soon as he was himself he
made statement to the effect that
he had been awakened in the night
by footsteps and had taken his pis-
tol, which had only two loads in it
out of five, and gone down into the
hall below to see what the noise
was.
He noticed that his masters door
was partly open, at the far end of
the hall and hurried toward it. AS
he approached it he heard his mas
ter speak to some one, asking who
was there, and with that there was
a pistol shot, and he jumped into
the room grabbing a burglar asshe
did so and at the same time getting
a shot in the head from his master 8
pistol. Beyond that he remembered
nothing more. His story was gem
orally disbelieved, for there was mo-
evidence of any person in the house
with evil designs and all theplunder
that he had not caught in his hands
was lying on the floor about him, so
that there was no apparent reason
why burglar should be there. All
the doors were found locked by
those who came in response to the
alarm, and there were absolutely no
signs of any burglarizing from the
outside.
Another strong point was that
the bullet which was found in the
buffers head exactly fitted the PTS
tol of his master, showing conclu-
sively that it was the master and
not the burglar who shot him. This
was the condition of the affair when
my father took charge of it, and,
though he really believed the but
ler's story and tried to prove it, he
could not do it, and the man was
finally hanged. A year later bur-
glar was shot by policeman in the
city nearest us, and he confessed on
his deathbed that he was the muir
derer of our rich man. He had hid
den in the house early in the even
ing, had collected all he could of
iewelry and other portable valu-
ables and was about getting out
when he was caught both by the old
man and. the butler, and that the
butler had got the bullet intended
for him, as he had run into the room
just as the old man fired. Dropping
everything in his sudden surprise,
he had rushed down stairs and hid
den in the hallway, from where he
had slipped out as soon as the front
door was opened. In the excite
ment he was not observed, and he
got away without any trouble at
al, as the nearness to the city made
strangers SO common that their
presence excited no suspicion. I'll
never forget that incident, and I'll
never be in favor of the death pen
atty on circumstantial evidence,
don't care how strong it is. Even
lynch law is less unjust. Chicago
Post.