The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-03
MIR. EVANS ADDRESS.
Summary of Closing Speech For the
Prosecution.

Summary of Closing Speech For the
Prosecution.
Mr.. Evans began in a self deprecatory
vein. He realized. he said, that the
prosecution had been poorly and in
efficiently represented" and that he was
laboring against great odds. Then he
patted himself on the back in a few
well-chosen sentences and proceeded to
wade knee deep into the law of the
case. His first proposition was that the
evidence of informants should be treat
ed with some caution. Then, said he,
with great ungrammatical force: You
will have to consider this if you be-
lieve Mr.. Law to be an informer, who
shall hereafter claim he is not"
He discussed the question of detection
of crime by inducing the suspected
person to commit the crime, contend
ing that Mr.. McCune had already COM
mitted bribery before Law sought to en-
trap him, hence the setting of the trap,
to obtain evidence, was legitimate.
Going on to the matter of bribery he
cited numerous cases defining bribery
in all its forms.
BRIBERY DEFINED.
He laid down the doctrine that any
attempt to divert attention of the cleo
tors from the qualifications of any can
didate is bribery. And skipping quickly
from this he made a vituperous attack
upon Mr. McCune because he played
poker, painting him in hideous colors
because he INDUCED occasionally in this
pastime. He attempted here, apropos
of nothing that had gone before, to
show that Mr.. Law had not been con-
tradicted in his testimony by other wit
10 ivo D, r,,.I
Of Mr.. Law against that of MIR. Sloan,
Mr.. Monson, Mr.. McCune and conclud-
ed triumphantly always, Would you
expect them to admit that what MIR.
Law said was so?"
He turned to the question of whether
Mr.. McCune wanted Mr. Laws vote.
He tried to show that Mr.. McCune
went eagerly to meet Law, to persuade
him to vote for him and without dis
cussing the point further he proceeded
to describe the meeting at the drug
store. He thought the shrewdest thing
Mr.. McCune could have done was to
pass the money to Law upon the street,
forgetting entirely to take into con-
sideration the danger of such a. transac-
ticn being seen and noticed and COM
mented upon by any one of the many
people VINO would likely have been on
the street, and who certainly have
marked the occurrence. He thought,
too, going back a little, that Mr.. Nc
Cune's statement, I have enough
votes to elect me anyhow" smacked of
dickering. He said Mr.. McCune's no
ticeable petulance at the end of the
conversation in the drug store was due
only to the fact that Law had asked
him too much for his vote: as if A W.
McCune, had he desired to buy votes.
would have hesitated and dickered over
IS, 900 if he thought that the vote would
elect him. He drew the conclusion, too,
from Mr.. McCune's purchase at the
counter that he went there TO count his
money, to count his money right before
the eyes of his known enemy, Horn, be-
fore he went out to buy Law The
absurdity of such a proposition did not
strike Mr.. Evans, but it did everyone
else who heard his speech. Going again
to the walk across the street, Mr..
Evans said that Mr.. McCune showed
the fang of the corruptioniSt" in not
spurning Low upon the street, in not
telling him, Get thee behind me-" He
delivered very nice Pharisaical speech
which he said Mr.. McCune ought to
have uttered when Law came to him
outside the drug store. His calmness
and self-possession, said Mr.. Evans,
went to show that Mr.. McCune was
briber and a falsifier and a perjurer.
He tried to parallel the fact that no
one saw the money change hands by
story about an attorney who defended
a murderer on the ground that no one
saw the bullet when it hit the murdered
man.
CONSPIRACY IDEA RIDICULED.
He took up the question of conspir-
acy and scoffed at it at great length.
He said that if there had been a con-
spiracy the conspirators would not have
stuck at any little thing in the way
of perjurfng themselves to prove every
little detail CT the attempt at bribery.
And of the fact that a rumor was prev
alent at McCune headquarters that
morning that Law would vote for Nc
Cune Mr. Evans made much capital,
claiming that it went to prove that Nc
Cune had. spread the report after his
return from the expedition, when, Mr..
Evans claims, he bought Law. The evi-
dence showed that the rumor was also
about concerning Taylor and that it
arose from the previous friendly state
ments of Law.
Right here came the controversy be-
tween Mr.. Evans and Mr.. Van Cott
which resulted in their meeting later
in the day.
The testimony of Carl Hard for the
Evans tried in vain to nullify the effect
of the fact that Hard fatty contra
dicted Law as to the conversation in
Hogle's. He said that Hard had prob
ably forgotten the conversation, and
yet he placed Hard on the witness
stand himself in the faith that he had
not forgotten.
Here he turned to the Nebeker case,
and like his colleague, Mr.. Dey, he
thought that the whole matter hinged
on the request by Sloan to Nebel1er not
to be angry at what he was going to
say. He ended his discussion of the
incident with the statement: "Oh. gen.
tlenen, il is suspicious circumstance
at best"
ACQUITTED HARRIS.
Mr. Evans acquitted Fisher Harris of
any corrupt intent in his proposition
to WINS and then he proceeded to
double back upon his tracks and try TO
prove that because jackson said the