The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-19
FAILED TO SECURE A JURY.
THE sULLIvAN-O'NEILL TRIAL NJ
GUN YESTERDAY.


the Day out of 1870 Who Were sum-
mOned-The state Had Twenty
Strikes and the Defendants Forty.
The Eleven Jurors Were Locked
Up for the Night, and Others Were
Summoned to Appear This Morn
ing, From which the Jury VIII Re
Completed.
The trial of Maurice +. Sullivan,
charged with the murder of a negro
named Preston Brooks, and of Simon
ONeill, charged with being an accessory
to the crime, was begun in the superior
court yesterday. and will, without doubt,
take up all of to-day, if it does not last
longer.
The great delay was caused by the trou-
BILE in securing a jury. 1t was decided
that the defendants should be tried joint
ly both the state and the defendants be-
ing agreeable, and this gave them twenty
strikes each, and also doubled the num-
Der of strikes allowed the state giving it
twenty. instead of ten.
More than Seventy jurors were on hand
when court convened at 10 O'Clock, and
when they were exhausted only nine
jurors had been secured for the trial.
Twenty-four more were summoned for
the afternoon session, and all of these
were either struck or went off for cause.
Out of about ninety-hve jurors, who were
impaneled only nine were selected for
the case. The state struck fifteen, the
defense thrty-fve, there were thirteen
who went off for cause, and the others
who were summoned, We're either excused
or did not appear in court. When the
Jurors summoned for the afternoon ses-
sion were exhausted, Judge Falligant
drew thrty-siX more from the box and
ordered them summoned to appear al
O'clock until which time he adjourned the
court
1t is hard to account for the large num-
Der of jurors who went off for cause, and
those who We're struck in this case. The
cause which several of them gave was an
Affirmative reply to the question as to
whether they were biased or prejudiced
as between the state and the accused,
and there were several also who objected
to capital punishment.
The court room was crowded with spec
tators, while the drawing of the jury
was in progress. They seemed to be as
much interested in that as they would in
prisoners sat near their counsel, Messrs.
T. s. Morgan, Jr.. f. NJ Oliver and Rob
ert NJ Hitch, who carefully studied each
juror presented to them, and in most
cases after consultation, it appears, de-
c!ded on a strike.
The court reconvened at Z O'Clock, at
which time the additional thirty-siX ju-
rors had been summoned to be present
All of Them however did not appear, as
there were some who could not be reached.
The effort to secure jury was then re-
sumed but only two more Jurors were
secured from the lot. They were Messrs.
Fred Myers Jr and w. w. Chisholm, Jr.
The defense exhausted four more of it's
strikes and the state three more of those
to which it was entitled, leaving the
former only one more and the latter two.
Some more jurors were drawn from the
! box by Judge Falligant and ordered to
! report at the court at 10 o'clock this morn
| ing. a which time the jury viii be COM
| pleted and the trial will proceed. The
eleven jurors so far drawn are: Arnold
Seyden, w. c. BarthelmeSs, Solomon d.
| Horton, Henry A. Stults, John j. Walker,
! Charles A. Perry, Samuel K Ward, B.
! Palmer Arson, Fred Myers, Jr., and w.
! w. Chisholm, Jr
Preston Brooks was killed on the night
of Nov. 8 at the corner of South Broad
and East Broad streets. The evidence
/ before the coroner's jury all pointed to
| Sullivan as the man who did the killing.
! O'Neill was with Sullivan. Brooks and
/ O'Nein had had some trouble early in
| the night 1t appeared that they had
| formerly been very friendly, but that some
/ difference had arisen, O'Neill called
| Broojs out of Crum's dance hall at Soath
! Broad street lane and New Houston
streets to inquire about another negro
for whom he had a warrant
After talking together for awhile there
was dispute about something which had
been said by one of them ONeill under
took to arrest Brooks and the latter re-
sisted and struck him once or twice in
the head. Brooks went to the barracks
office with a friend and reported that he
| had been assaulted by ONeill and Sulli-
van He requested their arrest. After
leaving the barracks he went down South
| Broad street to the corner of East Broad
street. where he met O'Neill and Sulli-
| van.
The accused claim that they were at
tackled by Brooks and his friends. The
| negro witnesses assert that O'Neill and
Sullivan at once attacked Brooks, and
that both pursued him. Sullivan with a
! pistol. Three or four shots were fired.
| Brooks ran out into East Broad street,
and then back into South Broad street
lane where he was found dead under a
stoop not far from the entrance to the
lane He had been shot through the
heart. The coroner's jury brought in
verdict of mansaughter but the grand
jury afterward brought in a true bill for
| murder