The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-06-21
SUMMING VI.
Lawyers in the Barker Trial
Present the Case to
the Jury.
STRONG PLEA OF JUSTIFICATION
Van Winkle Urges the
Prisoners State of Mind
at Time of Shooting.
JUDGE BLA1R's CHARGE
Jury Locked Up at Twenty
five Minutes to Three
O'Clock.

| While readers of "The News" are perus-
| ing today's issue, the jury will be con-
| sidering the case of Thomas G.. Barker,
| whose trial for shooting Rev. John Keller
has bee on trial since Monday last.
| What the verdict will be is what every
| body is wondering. Talk to one set and
they will tell you guilty without doubt;
to another, ..Oh, they'll acquit,'' and to a
third, Disagreement, my boy" So many
men, so many views, or, as the Germans
| say, Find three women together and
there'H be four opinions.
AS early as nine o'clock people began TO
gather at the door of the Court House
| clamorins for admission. There was a
| small crowd of Arlington women at the
| Pavonia avenue entrance waiting to see
Rev. Mr. Keller pass into the building.
No one is permitted to speak to him by
those who accompany chin. Mr.. Keller
| IS sick man and the ordeal of the past
four days has naturally told on him.
| A few minutes after ne entered Mr. anG
Mrs. Barker came in by the same en-
trance and greeted their friends on all
sides. Both were looking well and chat
| ted jus. as if the most important day
; When the doom of the husband would be
known. Mrs. Barker was dressed as yes
terday in a tan colored suit with a straw
nat of the same color Miss Gernond
was with her and Lawyer jones' Their
counsel. Messrs Marshall Van Wrinkle
and Albert Wall. were Immediately DC
hind them and in the rear was Prosecutor
Erwin and his assistant George T. Wick
ers.
Little time was lost in preliminaries and
Mr. Van Wrinkle being reminded that each
side should have one hour and a half
rose to make his plea for the defense.
He soon showed what the line of his ad-
dress. would he 1t was not to be a ana
lytical treatment of the facts in the case
but an appeal to the sympathies of the
jury. He painted picture of a house
hold where the wife had been betrayed
and outraged by friend, and that friend
clergyman. He insisted over and over
again that the defense was unsatisfactory
because it was not allowed to get in the
famous STORY" Finally he said that
American juries would always justify
crime like this and pointed to the Sickles-
Key case as an instance
Prosecutor Erwin made a cold criticism
of the defendants conduct; first defining
the crime, then tracing up the acts be-
fore and after it, and finally ridiculing
the defence that Barker was insane. To
tolerate a crime because a man thought
a story justified him in committing it
was absurd and dangerous. He attacked
Mrs. Barker for not tefing her husband
at once of the alleged outrage and closed
with an effective appeal to uphold the
nf Nav 1ax
the defendant. A recess was taken
when the State closed
At half past one o'clock the court re-
convened and Judge Blair began his
charge. 1t was as follows-
"Gentlemen OF the Jury-The issue
winch we have been examining for the
last four days is now about to be SUBJ
mltted to you. There is nothing in the
character of this prosecution that is un-
usual in this court. This case has to be
sure, acquired great publicity and
achieved large measure of merefricfous
notoriety, but after all, the charge upon
which this defendant is being tried is that
or an atrocioqS assault or an assault with
intent to kill-by no means an unusual
form of crime.
This matter, though important. and in
more than one particular most unfortu-
nate, is attended with no serious COM
plications and to a jury of your intelli-
gence and experience the task now before
you should be neither difficult nor pro-
longed. Your simple duty is to discover
whether from the evidence produced be-
| fore you this defendant is guilty or not
guilty. What his punishment shall be, if
he is convicted. is a matter with which
you have no concern. The law imposes
| that burden upon the Court, and relieves
you from all responsibility respecting it.
In your investigation you will be guided
by the law which the Court will give you,
by the facts as you have heard them from
10 mo of ruifDaSene ar6 c11r
circumstances, connected with the alleged
crime, as have been established by proof.
You are to act without prejudice, without
passion and without sympathy, and be
guided solely by your oaths, to return
verdict according to the evidence.
'sYou have been selected from the body
| this responsible duty. The scope of your
| examination is confined to the evidence III
| this case and to the evidence only. Your
| oAtns prohibit you from giving the slight
| est thought to what you may have read
| in the newspapers, or in the public press.
| or from conversations, or information
| gathered from any source other than the
| Testimony in the case, the directions from
| the Court the arguments of counsel, and
consultations among, yourselves 10 allow
any other influence to control your action
| will be in violation of your oatns.
1.-THE crime charged is that of an as
! sault with intent to kill, 1t consists of
| place, and secondly of the assault or
| shooting with intent to kill on the part
| of the accused
'Tfe mere intention to do an unlawful
| act is not punishable, but the intention
| carried out by the doing of the unlawful
| act constitutes and completes the crime.
| Ii it is proven to your satisfaction that
! the accused fired the pistol as alleged III
| the indictment that proof alone will not
| justify his conviction. It is only suffi-
| had fixed intent to do that which ne
| did do that. you are authorized to find q
verdict against the accused of guilty as
I1141 rod fc <,I,I to
| these two facts to your satisfac-
| tion beyond reasonable doubt.
essential and necessary part of the crime.
| A criminal intent being one of the essen-
| tial elements of crime, In this case it be-
| comes essential to determine that the in
4 tent to kill was present with the act Of
1 shooting. There are some cases in which
! there need not be any more done to show
| criminal intent than to prove the act