The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1904-06-02
THE LEON REPoRrER. THURsDAY. JUNE :. 1904

the jury devoted considerable time to
explaining the act Of the shooting and
characterized it as a cold 8blooded nur-
Der. He is one of the most eloquent
attorneys who ever addressed jury,
and swayed both the jury and audience
with the power OF his address, saying
that even il the defendant was assaulted
by the deceased he had no right to use
q deadly weapon. That in the great
state of Iowa and in Decatur county
human life was held sacred, and in
brilliant flights Of oratory pictured the
bereaved wife and children whom he
said the state and law were bound to
protect. He ridiculed the theory of the
defense that the defendant was insane
and not accountable for his act, as we'll
as the theory of self defense, saying the
evidence would not warrant or justify
such theory. He went carefully over
the evidence, and argued in support OF
the crime being wanton and cold
blooded murder. During his argument
there was quite spirited tilt between
Mr.. Miles and attorney Hoffman of the
defense who insisted that Mr.. Miles
was going outside of the evidence and
had no right to make statements to the
jury as to what his belief was, but
should confine himself to the evidence
in the case. Their remarks became so
personal that Judge Miller had to
warn the attorneys and instructed the
jury not to consider the by play be-
tween the attorneys and also warned
Mr.. Miles as to combining his state
ments more closely to the evidence. He
said that even if the defendant was an
,epileptic, which fact they had failed to
prove, he was accountable to the law
for his heinous crime, and quoted some
Of the most brilliant men the world had
ever known as epileptics, including
Napoleon, Ceaser and other noted men.
Mr.. Miles made one of the arguments Of
his life in the case and many who heard
him expressed the belief that it had
great weight with the jury>in arriving
at their verdict. Mr.. Miles closed his
argument at 400, after talking almost
four hours.
He was followed by Geo. w. Baker for
the defense, who seemed to put his
whole being into the case, and made one
OF the finest arguments ever heard in
any court in Decatur county. He de-
voted some little time al the beginning
of his argument to the remarks of Mr..
Miles, saying the jury was not in court
to be swayed by flights of oratory, and
especially the vivid pen pictures paint
ed by MIR. Miles as to the CORY scene, in
which he even tried to make the jury
believe they could see the blood
dripping from his fingers. He advanced
the theory that the defendant was upon
his own premises engaged in lawful
act when he was assaulted by deceased,
and believing his life was in great
danger, or at least he was about to
have great bodily injury inflicted
upon him, he done as any man would
have done, defended himself, which he
said was the first trait of any human
being. He claimed that Bracewell had
assaulted Hayden with heavy buggy
whip, holding the small end in his hand,
which made it dangerous and deadly
weapon, and to emphasize his statement
Mr.. Baker had procured new whip,
cut it in two and springing to the table
under which it was lying, rained down
some fierce blows on the table to show
the jury how hard a blow could be
struck with it, but at this moment Judge
Miller rather angrily interrupted him
and ordered the whip removed from the
court room, saying that Mr.. Baker
knew that he would not allow him to
use the whip and was surprised that he
had done so. When the hour of adjourn
ment six o'clock arrived Mr.. Baker was
in the midst of his argument and court
was adjourned until Saturday morning
at o'clock.
When court convened Saturday
morning Mr.. Baker Immediately re-
sumed his argument, devoting his time
to calling the attention of the jury to
the discrepancies in the testimony of
the witnesses for the state, and
especially to that of Francis Peck, the
eye witness, who testified at the time
the coroners jury heard the evidence
that Bracewell was close to Hayden
when he shot, within five or six feet of
him, and now when the case was tried
he came in and testified that he was 25
or 80 feet away. He also called atten-
ton to the fact that when Peck left the
barn he had the whip, while when
Bracewell slid off his horse to attack
Hayden he had the whip, and claimed
that both men were ready to assault
him and Peck had given the whip to
Bracewell to use in the assault. He
also called attention to the fact that the
witness Petty who was near the scene
" oAAS ohOoCAhSo OOoUluSu ITO uSdFu uO
loud talking or cursing, although he was
going away from the scene heard
Bracewell exclaim ooh" when he was
shot, and said if Hayden had called him
vile names and swore at him that this
witness would have heard it, and urged
this fact as confederation of the
defendant who testified that he did not
curse Bracewell. Mr.. Baker closed
with an earnest appeal to the jury not
to let prejudice or public opinion
influence the jury but for them to
consider only the evidence in the case,
and if they did so, could not help
acquitting the defendant. He closed
his remarks at Ills.
Mr.. Baker was followed by c. W..
Hoffman, who urged additional reasons
as to the evidence being wholly in favor
of the defendant having acted in self
defense and to the insanity theory on
which they should acquit the defendant,
and in case they found him guilty of any
crime under the evidence it could not