The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-01-20
JUDGE TO CHARGE
The JURY TUESDAY
Ward and AydIett Will Speak
Monday.
WILCOX NOT TO TESTIFY
SAWYER Makes a Dramatic Speech for the State
Which has a Powerful Effect Upon
the Hearers in the Court
Room.
(Special to News and Observer

Especial to News and Observer
HEREFORD, n. c., Jan. 17.-With the sun
half an hour behind the western hills
a big company of persons tonight wit
messed a touching and thrilling scene at
the end of the first week of the Wilcox
trial.
Mer, women and children inside and
outside the rail were held well nigh
spell bound by the closing words of elo-
ouencc and condemnation in Haywood
Sawyer's speech. When the climax came
at the end of a 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
ibie all over the court room. Hand
kcrchiefS were used-by many women not
connected with the principals and tears
WCllcd 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.
SaWycr's speech perhaps Will prove one
Of the most brilliant, not only of this
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
go 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
the evidence, growing more eloquent as
no DrNppCdn6 81 annTO3ph a discussion
of this case with much concern" he said.
"Jt is of great Importance to the State
Of North Carolina and of great impor-
lance to the prisoner at the bar. For
me would not be a 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
cscutcheon stained with innocent blood.
I hope we may receive light and strength
from above to do our duty"
-. Starting out from the corpus deficit 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, and then link by link
he went over the circumstances tending
he, said, to form a chain which should
convict beyond doubt the prisoner, James
Wilcox. The speaker 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 proofs against suicide was
the decomposition Of the brain first when
naturally it should have been the seventh
organ to decay.
What reason was there for suicide?'
he continued. She was just budding into
womanhood like the flowers OF May. She
was full of life and icy and hope. The
defense would have YOU believe she had
killed herself over a man from whom she
shrank like a viper in the grass.
What did she read? She read Sunday
School books, and l would suggest to the
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
CroHsey was as pure and %spotlesS as the
snow. No vile hand had ever defiled her;
she was a virgin. The doctors swear it,
Having shown that this fair young
life was snufed out by an assassin's
blow I come to the question of who did
it? Yonder sits the man. he said in
tones of thunder, turning and pointing
q ouivering finger of scorn. "who the
state contends on his evidence commit
ted this heinous crime. He is James Will
cox. the prisoner at the bar. 1 ask you
to find that he did it,
IN proceeding he cndeavored to show
that Wilcox had the motive. opportunity
and time. He argued that the wild beast
element in the prisoner continued tC
grow as he was scorned and piQued by
Nell. The pcroratior was powerfully dc
livcred and could be heard about a block
from the court building.
Gentlemen Of the jury, I ask you t
bring in a verdict of first degree murder
DO your duty. The g~irlhood and the wo
manhood Of North Carolina must b.
protected; the s~anctity Of the hom'
must. not be desccrated. If the midnigh
murderer is to go unpublished we Nigh
as we'll tear up the law books, pull down
tho court houses, burn up the jails, am
say that public order is no more, tina
there is a reign of anarchy and social
ism.
For the father and mother and SiSte
of tie defendant / have the dcepes
sympathy. | pray that the Father o
all fathers who reigns above may com
fort them. I commend them to the sam
religion that was embraced by Nell
few days before death.
But there is another picture. A pur
Young girl is in her grave, her brow i
cold, her pulse is still; she has passe
not from life to death, but from deaf
to life. Here was victory without
battle, a crown without the thornS.
ask, too, that her father and mother an
sisters may embrace her faith; that the
may clasp her to their bosom in tn
land beyond the skies; that they ma
stand without finching at the time whe
the righteous shall be saved, the Wicke
condemned before the bar of the Eter
nal God"
It was nearly dark when the spcako
finished.
This morning the defense sprang a SUI
prise by declining to introduce any ev
depce. Mr.. Aydlctt said after court /
had summoned witnesses and conten
Mated introducing the prisoner, but TT
state had not taken the looked-for turl