The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-06-28
No Verdict Has
Been Reached Yet
Continued from Page Twenty-Five

Wilson. He did not remember that tn,
people of Wilson were outraged by
man bedding up with negroes, and l there
fore ask MI. Uzzell to Withdraw his
| statement.
why have both brothers for the prose
cution asked you, gentlemen of the jury
to be brave and do your duty l believ,
that a. Wilson county jury can be de
| pended upon to do its duty.
In looking at the testimony in thi:
case you are to consider that these five
men stand before you innocent and you
are to so consider them until the eyi
/ dence in the case satisfies you to the con
| trary Evidence does not consist of preju
/ dice, of frenzy-you must be satisfied thai
these men are guilty beyond a reasonable
doubt. Has the State brought forth evi
dence to prove that these men are guilt,
OF this high crime? o tell you, gentlemen
that such men as Mr.. Uzzell described
these men to be, does not commit such
crime as this. I. in my opinion, think
the State has made out a weak case. The,
say Will Ward is a brave man. He i
grave and he is not the man to go to q
mans room in a body, twelve to one. in
the dead hours of the night and commit
murder
What is the evidence in the case? II
is circumstantial evidence. This is the
most uncertain kind of testimony. The
| State tells you of discrepancies in turn
| OF these defendants. There are but two
fixed terms in this evidence, one is the
hour of eleven. when the bars close and
one o'clock when Jones was called
"They have brought some other kind
| Of focfi -, fIo e e.
sion from mull-headed Bill Barnes. The
State brought out this evidence gingerly.
They were afraid to either open or close
their case on this testimony. They were
afraid you would not believe Barnes so
they put on evidence for two days to get
you ready to believe Barnes and then two
days after his confession to make you
| forget it, because they believed he had
told a lie. There is condemnation for a
man who swears against his friend. who
has won the disgust of every one. Barnes
swears to you that the killing took place
some where. between the hours of IL and
IL while all the witnesses swear that
the killing took place about one o'clock
The State makes the proposition that if
all the witnesses do not coroborate Barnes
testimony they are willing to throw aside
Barnes testimony, / therefore ask the
solicitor for a verdict of not guilty
reference having been made by the
speaker to some popularity in the bill
of indictment under which Barnes was
held. Objection to having this bill Of in
dictment read before the, jury was made
by the State and the jury was taken
from the room. After a discussion of
this point the court decided that the pc
| culiarity and the bill might be read be-
| fore the jury. The speaker continued:
"The reason Bill Barnes was swearing
was because Solicitor Daniels had the
hanging words in the bill of indictment,
and to save his neck he peached. The
whole thing was planned and Barnes
came up to his part of the contract.
| "The State have discussed fully the cir
cumstantial testimony that they have
found no one except Barnes to connect
the names of Rich. Allen, Ward and Nor
gan with any knowledge of Percy Jones
death. They have argued to you that
there was a conspiracy. / have seen no
such conspiracy. Jones was visited twice
one time he was in bed with a negro wo-
man and the next time he was found
| in a negro restaurant eating with ne
gro woman. Mr. Uzzell said Jones was
doing an insurance business. / do not
wonder that there was indignation al
such conduct. / do not wonder that he
was wanted to leave town. But there Is
no evidence that any of these defendants
except drunken George Whitley ever took
any steps to get Jones out of town
Where then is the evidence of this great
conspiracy. By the laws of North Caro-
lima man can not be indicted for forna-
cation and adultry unless it is continued
with some woman and VIGOROUSLY open
There was no other way to get Jones out
of town, except for some one to go TIC
him and tell him that if he would kecr
UP his conduct to go to some other place
besides Wilson to do it. SO if we have q
conspiracy it was entered into, it was fol
the purpose of getting man to do what
he ought to do And there is no evi.
dence against any of these defendants ex
cept George whitley, who ever knew d
Jones. Whitley went to see Jones. and
when he was arrested on peace warrant
by Jones h got scared and went to th'
police and gave himself up and was il
his bed when the shooting occurred.
IF these men killed Jones they have
acted as murderers as they never hay,
acted before Ward and Morgan. botl
WSub 10 0Ouco lOOIu dlbGI TIC hlninE
Does this show a guilty conscience
Would Rich have carried Allen to tn,
coroner of the county if he had been {
murderer? Would he have stayed Their
and nursed this man if he had been /;
murderer? Rich could have gotten ava.
if he had wanted to. but he made NJ
effort to get away. What about Morgan
Mr. Uzzel argues that Morgan had
motive for running Jones out OF town
but there is nothing in the testimon'
which bears him out in this statement
What is the evidence against Morgan
Barnes brought in Morgan, but Barne
would have brought in anybody. Thel
there is the hat. 1t is in evidence tina
Morgan gave Allen the hat. There is N
evidence that Morgan was in the, Sam
tarium and this hat was found in tn
Sanitarium, where Allen was If the
: had not told the truth about this ha
why should Morgan's hat be found in tn
Sanitarium. where Morgan did not go al
; night. 1t is in evidence that Morgal
! gave the hat to Allen and the facts bea
him out IN this evidence. Why has tn
: State asked all the illnesses. If you hav
not sold whiskey, haven't you run a bar
room? Do they believe that because
Il