The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-01-18
JUDGE TO CHARGE
THE JURY TUESDAY
Ward and Aydlett Will Speak
Monday.
WILCOX NOT TO TESTIFY
Sawyer Makes Dramatic Speech for The State
Which has Powerful Effect Upon
the Hearers in the Court
Room.
Especial to News and Observer }

Especial to News and Observer)
Hertford N. c.. JAM 17.-Dith the sun
half an hour behind the western hills
a big company of persons tonight wit
messed touching and thrilling scene at
the end of the first week of the Wilcox
trial.
Men. women and children inside and
outside the rail were held we'll nigh
bound by the closing words of elo-
quence and condemnation in Heywood
Sawyer's speech. When the climax came
at the end of three-hours plea, the
only sound beside the speakers voice
came from the throats of weeping women.
From the corner occupied by the Misses
Cropsey there came sobs which were aud
ible all over the court room. Hand
kerchiefs were used by many women not
connected with the principals and tears
welled into the eyes of hard, stern men.
As the spectators filed out into the twi-
light there was about them an air of
sorrow and sympathy for two stricken
families.
Sawyers speech perhaps will prove one
trial. but in the criminals annals of
Eastern North Carolina He is of pow
erful physique and forceful resonant
voice. He is five feet ten, and weighs
260 pounds
All the States lawyers are heavy
weights, Ward weighing $50 and Turner
1S5. The defense lawyers are of me-
dunn size.
Mr.. Sawyer sifted nearly every word of
tho evidence, growing more eloquent as
he proceeded. Il approach a discussion
of this case with much concern" he said.
1T is of great Importance to the State
of North Carolina and of great impor-
tance to the prisoner at the bar. For
me l would not be party to the convic-
ton of an innocent man; the grand and
glorious State wants no guilty man to
escape. nor does she want her fair
oscutchcon stained with innocent blood.
] hope we may receive light and strength
from above to Go our duty"
Starting out from the corpus delicti he
showed from the evidence that Nell did
not die by her own hands but from a
blow on the temple from a round. pad
ded instrument, cnf thon link by link
he went over the circumstances tending
he, said. to form = chain which should
convict beyond doubt the prisoner. James
Wilcox. The sreaker argued that had
Nell meant to commit suicide she would
have gone into deeper water, that the
temple bruise could not have been made
by jumping, for it would have been on
the front part Of the face In review
ing the doctors testimony he said one OF
the strongest Trcofs against suicide was
the decomposition of the brain first when
naturally it should been the seventh or
gan to decav.
What reason was there for suicide 2"
he continued "She was just budding into
womanhood like the flowers of Nav. She
was full of life and Joy and hope. The
defense would have you believe she had
killed herself over man from whom she
shrank like a viper in the grass
~yhat did she read? She read Sunday
School books, and | would suggest to the
young women here that they, too. read
more Sunday School literature and less
of the stories that curdle the blood with
deeds of midnight assassins.
There is one supreme cause which
may beyond a doubt lead a woman to sui
eide, but that was absent here. Nell
Cropsey was as pure and sDotless as the
snow. No vile hand had ever defled her.
she was a virgin. The doctors swear it.
Having shown that this fair young
life was snuffed put by an assassin's s
blow | come to the question of who did
it? Yonder sits the man., he said in
tones of thunder, turning and, pointing
ouivering finger of scorn. who the
State contends on this evidence commit
ted this henous crime. He is James VIII
cox. the prisoner at the bar. | ask you
TO find 5hat he did it,"
In proceeding he endeavored to snow
that Wilcox had the motive, opportunity
and time. argued that the wild beast
element in the prisoner continued TO
grow he was scorned and piqued by
Nell. The peroration was powerfully de-
livered and could be heard about block
from the court building.
Gentlemen of the jury, ask you to
bring in a verdict of first degree murder
Do your duty. The girlhood and the wo-
manhood of North Carolina must be
protected; the sanctity of the home
must not be desecrated. If the midnight
murderer is to go unpublished we might
as well tear up the law books. pull down
Tire court houses, burn up the jails, and
say that public order is no more. that
there is reign of anarchy and social
isf
For the father and mother and sister
of the defendant / have the deepest
sympathy. | pray that the Father of
all fathers who reigns above may COM
fort them. | commend them to the same
religion that was embraced by Nell
few days before death.
But there is another picture. pure
young girl is in her grave. her brow is
cold. her pulse is still; she has passed
not from life to death, but from death