The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-27

lDiOOu lTOu jill Jne dfbeFltS, FGSSClS 0iS
heart was absorbed by this process. lit
of the weight of a person is blood; she
weighed Ito pounds. There should have
been in the body a gallon and three plnts
of blood. This was all absorbed by the
osmosis process. The more easily woulo
the water from the stomach or lungs OF
drowned woman have been absorbed
than the blood through vessels made to
it. Then, there is a large per cent. o.
drowned persons who have no water IN
the stomach, or in the lungs or pleurai
cavity This may have been one OF THESE
cases.
This leaves. then, but one eircum-
stance, to-wit, the confusion on the leIt
| TEMPLE. Can it be called a bruise? NO
bones were broken, there was no apparent
Injury to the head in any way. There was
simnlv a discoloration on the left temple
| that would not even show after the top
skin and hair was taken off the head.
This confusion could have been produced
In in going overheard If she had COM
mitted suicide, (2) by striking the head
against something in the river, CD or on
the bottom of it, (4) by drifting against
something in the water, 60 by the head
resting on a hard substance after drowning
(6) or as a result of decomposition setting
in The evidence is that there were posts
and roots in the water.
.'Dr. Wood admits in his testimony on
cross examination that it could have been
produced by any of the above causes. This
IS fully sustained by leading experts, no
tably by three OF the best experts in the
country in the celebrated Haynes case
tried in New York. 1t is true that the
doctors testified that they believed that
the blow in this case was stricken by some
thing round and padded, this is not COM
petent and the other evidence of the doc
tors show that this confusion was not
from blow Dr. Wood says his testimony:
We cut around the scalp and as we reach
ed the left temple we there found some
blood, dark fluid blood, about a spoonful
Drs. Fearing, Leroy and Ship testified
that 1T was dark bloody
fluid that came from the
wound on the left temple. On page
80 of the record, page 81 of DIR. Fearings
testimony, he says: There is more or
less swelling in wound inflicted before
death, and then there is more or less clot
ted blood in a wound stricken before
death. AS to the wound stricken after
death there is no coagulation or clots in
it. This. being so all the evidence shows
that this would had no Goa gulated blood
If the statements of the doctors are true,
then the blow was not inflicted during
life because the only thing that came from
this confusion was a thin. dark fluid sub
stance. With this evidence, then no ore
can say that the wound was inflicted by
any one, or during life, but to the con-
trary, or by decomposition setting in
ARGUMENT.
The principal contentious of the State
were as follows:
"The principle question involved in the
appeal is whether or not the evidence dis
closed in the record was sufficient to
justify the action OF the Judge in submit
ting the case to the jury on the issue OF
murder in the second degree The ques-
ton for consideration is not whether tile
evidence is sufficient to satisfy the MEM
aers of this Court that the verdict was
warranted, for this is a matter, under our
system of Jurisprudence, peculiarly within
the province of the jury. If there is any
substantial evidence, and by that We
claim evidence beyond a mere scintilla,
in the language of Mr.. Justice Douglas,
N Bingham VS.. Railroad, 100 N. c., at p.
i25, it became the duty of the Judge in
he Court below to submit the case to
the jury, and this Court is always loath
o set aside the verdict of the jury upon
the ground that there is no evidence to
sustain it
THE rule of law in criminal cases, re
luiring proof beyond a reasonable doubt,
Toes not require the State, even in a case
If circumstantial testimony, to prove such
4 coincidence of circumstances as excludes
very hypothesis except the guilt of the
prisoner. The true rule is, that the cir
;umstance sand guilt must be such as to
produce moral certainty OF guilt, and to
exclude any other reasonable hypothesis.
while circumstances standing alone
nay not be sufficient upon which to con-
gict, taken together as whole, they may
properly be left to the jury.
eff the evidence of the medical men,
Doctors Wood and Fearing, is worthy of
belief, the deceased did not commit sui
ide. The condition of the various or
cams of the body as testified to by the
medical experts, showed, after an exami-
nation, that the deceased was either dead
n unconscious when the body went into
The water. Counsel for the prosec123456
he water. Counsel for the prisoner en-
leavors to discredit the conclusions of the
expert witnesses as to the symptoms IN
licatin gthat death had taken place when
| the body went into the water, by asking
the symptoms were not reliable only Ill
,ases where the examination is made soon
| after deadth, but both of the physicians
say that the body was in a perfect state
If preservation.
"The Cropsey family came to North
Carolina in April, 1885, and located In
Elizabeth City. Miss Ella the deceased,
was then about sixteen years old. She
vas nineteen on the 18th day of July.
1901, and on that day her sweetheart
James Wilcox, gave her diamond ring
It Mays Head On the night OF November
20, 1901, she disappeared from her fathers
house and was never seen again alive
Thirty-seven days thereafter her body was
ound IN the Pasquotank river, about
twenty-five or one hundred feet from the
shor, in water about four feet deep, and
almost opposite the Cropsey residence.
"The prisoner Wilcox first met the dc
eased on the June next after the arriva
# the Cropsey family in April, 1898. Th,
intimate relationship existing between
them is told in the record by Miss Oil,
Cropsey, sister of the deceased.