The Savannah morning news., 1901-06-07
SPARED HIS NECK
HENRY JOHNSON WILL SPEND HIS
LIFE BEHIND PRISON BARS.
FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER.
JURY's RECOMMENDATION SAVED
HIM FROM THE GALLONS.

Tested Liberty, johnson was Ar
rested for the Murder of Drew
BrazeII, Tried, Found Guilty Rne
Has Been Sentenced to the Pcni-
Tertiary for Life-Murder Was
1, 1S90-The Slayer Laughed and
Joked Over the Dead Body of His
Victim-Woman Told Him He
Hadn't the Heart of n Dog.
Henry Johnson, who shot and killed
Drew Brazell, at Bloomingdale, more
of fancied security extending over nearly
the whole of that time, was tried in the
Superior Court yesterday, found guilty
of murder, but was recommended to mer-
cy by the jury, and was sentenced by
Judge Falligant to hard labor in the pen
itentiary for his natural life.
The whole story has a tinge of the
dreadful and the romantic. The killing of
Brazell and the events by which it was
Immediately followed, as these were told
on the stand by the witnesses for the
state, furnished the element of horror,
and Johnson's life since that occurrence,
when in presumed safety he dwelt within
the very shadow of the police station
house, the element of romance.
Drew Brazell was killed on Oct. 1. 1899.
There had been game of skin at Bloom
ingdale, and Johnson had either lost what
money he had in this game or been
robbed of it by the other negroes. These
included Drew Brazell, the man who was
killed, Nose Brazell. his uncle Ben An
derson and others. The living participants
in the game of skin, including johnson,
told their story to the jury that tried
him on yesterday.
There were no redeeming features in
the story with which the state supported
its demand for conviction; 1t made out,
on the contrary, a deliberate and cold
blooded case of murder, with aggravating
circumstances that justified, if they were
true, the statement one of the states
witnesses said she had made to the de-
PENDANT: Henry johnson, you haven't
got the heart of dog"
Was Half Drunk.
According to the states witnesses
johnson was rather more than half drunk
on the night the homicide was committed
Angered and enraged by the loss of his
money, he had gone away and returned
with shotgun. This he had presented at
the door of the house in which Drew and
Nose Brazell and some other negroes
were sitting around a fire, and with
dreadful threats and oaths and impreca-
tons had demanded the return of his
money or vengeance. Those who heard
him were afraid to come to the door and
johnson fired through it, Drew BrazeN
was killed and Nose Brazell painfully
wounded by the buckshot with which the
gun was loaded
1t SO happened that a white man, George
Baker, had seen johnson fire the fatal
shots, and he was witness at the trial.
The witness had seen none of the negroes
in the house appear at the door, nor had
any shots been fired from inside as John
son insisted was the case. When johnson
emptied his shotgun, the witness testi-
fed, there had been a general exodus
from the shanty, the negroes who had
been inside scattering in every direction
A negro woman of alleged bad charac-
ter, Emma Walker testified to a con-
versation she had had with johnson a
short time after the commission of the
homicide, when the dead body of his vic
tim was still weltering in it's blood The
woman impressed the jury with desire
to tell the truth and she impressed ev-
erybody else the same way
When she saw johnson on the night
of the homicide she had asked him what
was the matter-what had caused the ex-
citement, and he had answered: II have
played -. 1 have killed some niggers
Tonight" According to her story he had
stood over the body of Brazell, said that
he had killed the wrong Niger" and
joked about the occurrence. Then it
was she had said TO him, depraved and
abandoned as the defendant endeavored
to show her to be: Henry Johnson, you
haven't got the heart of a dog"
A Witness Bravado.
johnson told his story with much bravo
do and with every appearance of indiffence
for the fate of Brazell. He said. indeed
that he knew nothing of the death of
the man for whose murder he was being
tried, save that he had heard he was
dead. He denied the essentials Of the con-
versation with Emma Walker. He ad-
mitted firing towards the house in which
Brazell was killed. but claimed he had
done so only after the refusal of the
men who robbed him to return his money
and after some one in the house had fired
at him four or five times. The story he
told was ram bling and at times incoher-
ent, and it impressed the jury in just
one respect-the brazen impudence and
effrontery which it exhibited
Solicitor General Osborne made a strong
argument for the state and Mr.. Raiford
Falligant, who represented johnson, did
what he could to impress the jury with
the truth of the defendants statement
and contentious. He was not very sue
cessful, as indeed nobody could have
been. and within a quarter of an hour
of the time 1t left the box, the jury re-
turned with a verdict of guilty, with a
recommendation that the defendant be
punished by Imprisonment in the peniten-
tiary for life.
This recommendation, followed by
Judge Falligant in imposing sentence
saved the neck of the accused johnson
seemed to be relieved that he was not to
be called upon to exp!ate his crime on
the gallows and expressed perfect salts
faction with the verdict and sentence
Before he had heard the solicitor general
to the end OF the states argument, John
son had lost his effrontery and bravado
and was almost in tears. He must have
seen the gallows loom before him, as the
solicitor general painted with strong
quick strokes the heartlessness and the
enormity Of his crime. He was quite con-
tent when he heard that his neck had
been saved and that he was not to die
johnson was locked up at the station
house, when he was arrested a month
ago. a suspicious character. and Coun-
ty Detective Charlton worked up the case
against him. The murderer seems to have
been quite convinced that no effort would