Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-02-15
LYING WITNESSES.
LaWers Who Know their Business Can
Catch Them.

How does a lawyer know when a
1iis;hess is iyingl Aud when he
knows a witness is lying, how does
he go about it 10 expose the perjury 2
i If all lawyers knew these two
things there would no longer be good
lawyers and poor lawyers, for all
lawyers would be good.
! Sometimes lawyers take a long
chance and ssguess" that witness is
deliberately lying. A story is told of
jeremiah Mason, the famous New
England lawyer of Daniel Webster's
day. Mason was CROSS examining a
witness whose testimony could not
be shaken. Time and again the wit
ness repeated his statement, and it
never varied.
Suddenly Mason, pointing his fin
ger straight at the witness, said in
his high, impassioned voice:
"Let's see that paper you've got in
your waistcoat pocket"
Taken completely by surprise, the
witness mechanically drew a paper
from the pocket indicated and handed
it to Mason. The lawyer slowly read
the exact words of the witness and
called attention to the fact that they
werein the handwriting of the lawyer
on the other side.
"Mason, how under the sun did you
know that paper was thereP" asked q
brother lawyer.
"Well," replied Mason, 81 thought
he gave that part of his testimony
just as if he'd heard it, and / noticed
every time he repeated it he put his
hand to his waistcoat pocket and then
let itfall again when he got through"
tis startling fact that perjury
in American courts is on the increase.
Francis L. Wellman, of the New York
bar, in book on "The Act of Gross
Examinations" declares that at the
present time scarcely trial is con-
Quoted in which it does not appear in
a more or less fragrant form.
1t seldom happens that witness
entire testimony is false from begin
ming to end. Perhaps the greatest
part of it is true, and that only the
crucial part-the point, however, on.
which the whole case may turn--is
wilfully false.
Then again there is the witness
who is deliberately lying to shield
himself from the consequences of his
own crime. This is the ugliest form
of perjury. There is one great his
toric case of the exposure of this
form Of perjury, and the lawyer who
exposed it was none other than Abra.
ham Lincoln-in the days when he,
was only struggling young lawyer,
tall, gaunt and uncouth. The story
is related in Judge j. w. Dunovan's
"Tact in Court" and is doub'y.
interesting because it was Abraham
Lincoln's first effort to defend man
accused of murder.
A man named Grayson was accused
of killing man named Lockwood at
camp meeting. A man named
s'ovine claimed to have witnessed the
murder. Sovine's story was 80 cir
cumstantial that Grayson was in
dicted and narrowly escaped being
lynched.
Abraham Lincoln was employed by
Grayson's mother to. defend her son.
The case came to trial. He cross
examined none of the witnesses, save
the last-the man Sovine, who swore
that he knew the parties, saw Gray
son fire the fatal shot, and saw him
run away.
The evidence of guilt and identity
was morally certain. When Sovine
was turned over to him for cross ex-
animation Lincoln stood up and eyed
the witness in silence, without book
or notes, and began the defense l. Y
these questions:
"And you were with Lockwood
just before ano saw the shooting?"
eyes"