The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-23
A POSITIVE JUROR
c,UsE OF MISTRIAL IN DORTTC
MURDER CASE.
WANTED EXTREME MERCY
.,rvEN AGREED TO MANSLAUGH-
TER WITH RECOMMENDATION.

X Majority Gagged on the Word
r,treme-The Single Juror Re-
,nined Firm, However, and
,.d.s harrow Declared MistriaI.
,nrors Had n Hard Night of 1t and
wore Fatigued-In Less Than a
,va.k several Had Done other
uord Jurx Duty and the Court Re-
.IIad Their Service-AppIicatfo
u,ul he Made for Bail for the
prisoner and Solicitor General
o.horne Will Fight Motion-An
EarIy Trial of the Case Is Pro-
bable.
After a night of little short of mis-
.rv the Jury sworn in the case against
william G. Dortic, charged with the
,,,,rder of John A. Deegan was dis
obareed by Judge Barrow in the Su-
,orior Court yesterday morning, and a
r,tstrial was declared. The majority
de a concession to the minority, but
-. member refused to bulge from the
stand he took when the first ballot was
,oren and the mistrial was the result.
Il was known at IL o'clock Friday
night that the jury would not be able
70 agree. and it's discharge before IL
had accomplished it's purpose caused no
sr,nrise. Judge Barrow did not COM
ne the jury to be shut up as long as
is customary, although the jurors were
rroatlv fatigued as it was, and had a
rather hard night of it. AS was stated
IN the Morning News, four of the jur-
orc we're out for ten hours on the
Frierson divorce case and three served
On the Ashby murder trial. Juror Jo-
.anh II Ruth was one of those VINO
seryad on the Ashby case and during
his term on the Dortic case he was in
formed that his child had been taken
III This combination of facts, taken
in connection with the further fact
that the Jury was hopelessly separated
prompted the court ~ 'e'n0
it did. :.
was escertained that there was not a
single member of the jury who voted
for verdict of not guilty, although
none was for a conviction on the in
dictment charging murder. When the
first ballot was taken six were for
Inanslaughter. three for the same grade
of homicide with a recommendation 70
mercy and three for extremeF mercy.
An effort was made to agree upon
compromise verdict and SIX OF the
Jurors agreed to sign a verdict recon-
mending the prisoner to mercy. one
Juror remained firm and would mol
b,,doa from, the nOsitiOn that he had
taken that the defendant should re-
ceive the extreme mercy of the court
The punishment for voluntary man.
slaughter is from l to 20 years, and
for Involuntary manslaughter from
to years.
Counsel for Dortic announced that a
formal application for bail will be made
tomorrow morning, and Judge Barrow
was spoken to about the
matter yesterday. Judge Twiggs
and Mr.. Colding stated that
they will make every effort to secure
Dortics release on bond, although it
was announced that Solicitor General
4 Osborne will resist the application. The
\ question of allowing bail is discretion
airy with the court. 1t is likely that
4 Dortic will again be placed on trial at
an early date.
According to some of the jurors who
4 served on the jury, and had to spend
the night in the jury room, it was
anything but a pleasant experience.
1 The jurors were in no manner COM
Portable and got but little rest. A
member of the jury complained that
the place was not even clean, and
limited that after he got used to the
undesirable condition of the room he
was frequently disturbed by "the pest
4 Hence that Wal1xatb in darIxpaSC -