The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-07
MURDERER HAS COLLAPSED.
Henry Brooks I'm Tears When Told
of Supreme Court Decision.

of Supreme Court Decision.
Henry Brooks, the negro waiter con-
victed of the murder of Patrolman
Harry B. Fender, broke down COM
pletely yesterday morning when he
learned for the first time that the Su-
preme Court had refused to grant him
new trial. While Brooks has not
appeared hopeful since his trial he at
least had a longer lease on life, and the
news that his counsel had been unable
to convince the higher court that he
should have new trial caused him to
collapse.
Brooks spent the morning in tears
and when his aged mother visited him
there was fresh paroxysnl. The wo-
man as we'll as her son cried and be-
| tween her sobs she tried to comfort
him, without any degree of success.
The murderer fully realized when the
news was given him that he has but
to go to the gallows and give a life
for a life. The prisoner was weeping
when seen by a Morning News reporter
and said that he felt in no mood to
talk. He did not care to express him
self on the crime, his conviction, or the
decision of the Supreme Court.
Since his confinement Brooks has
kept to himself and has had but little
to do with his fellow prisoners. Re
ligious duties have occupied most of
| his time since his conviction and his
prayers "for salvation have been fire.
quent. Brooks has also done some
fancy work during his confinement
and passages from the Bible, and
others of his own making, have been
worked in colored silk on squares. Sew
eral pieces of his handiwork were turn
ed over to his mother yesterday.
Although the killing of Patrolman
Fender, on jefferson street, near
Liberty, took place nearly a year ago
it is still fresh in the mind of the pub
lie. The officer was shot down in cold
blood and a few minutes afterwards
Brooks was arrested for the crime. He
was charged the same time with hav-
ing shot negro on West Broad street
and it was because of that shooting
that the patrolman attempted to arrest
him.
Brooks displayed his cowardice from
the time of his arrest, and until the
day of his trial, denied that he had
ever owned a revolver, or that he had
shot the negro on West Broad street.
In his statement to the jury, after he
had been identified beyond all perad-
venture as the individual who had
wounded the negro on West Broad
street, Brooks admitted the first shoot
| ing. He denied, however, most persist
emily. and trembling with fear, that he
killed the officer, or even saw him. A
strong chain of circumstantial evidence
was wrapped around the prisoner, and
a witness who claimed to have witness
ed the assassination was produced by
| the state.
The first point made by the defense
for a new trial was that Fender had
no right to place Brooks under arrest
without a warrant, even though the
negro and officer had met, which is de-
| MED by Brooks. In refusing a new
trial the higher court, all justices con-
curing, covers this point in the fol-
low language used in the first para
graph:
If a policeman at late hour of the
night hear a pistol shot within two
| blocks of his beat, and Immediately
| thereafter discover a man running
| from the direction of the shot toward
him, he has right to arrest him with
! out a warrant. Where under such cir
cumstances the officer attempts to
make the arrest and is shot and killed
| by the person whom he is seeking to
arrest, the offense is murder and not
manslaughter; especially where the
slayer has in fact fired the shot first
heard and has thereby wounded an
| other