The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1905-01-26

Your own selection and by men from
your own county, in which you have
lived, as yonr Testimony shows, some
thing like 30 or 81 years. These jurors
were selected, by your attorneys with
the utmost care. and the evidence was
submitted against you and on your be-
half with as much caro- as it was pos
sible> to submit it. This jury SO fara
the court knows, was absolutely with
out prejudice, and had no other purpose
than to do that which was right and III
accordance with the law and evidence.
You have been represented in this case
by counsel whom l do not hesitate to
say rendered to you the most faithful
and vigorous service that could be rem
Idered to you. In the experience of
Ieighteen years practice of law. do not
remember of ever seeing case more
1 vigorously and more thoroughly than
J, your case has been tried. These men,
in season and out of season, have stood
here battling for you and for your lib
,erty. They have done everything so
| far as the court knows and so far as the
court has been able to observe, that
was possible to do in honor in your de-
Tense. You have been present during
the trial and you have known and OBJ
served that these men have been more
faithful to you than brother. 1t is
true that the state has presented it's
case vigorously; they. have presented it
we'll; and the county attorney and his
able assistant in this matter have, so
far as the court knows, presented all
the evidence and presented it in a way
most effective and we'll, so that this
struggle in behalf Of your liberty has
been struggle in many respects of
giants in the endeavor to determine the
very truth of the matter at issue. The
court has tried, so far as human nature
and finite knowledge and not wide ex-
perience is concerned, to give you a
fair and impartial trial. In the sub
mission of evidence, if the court erred
he feels that he erred on your side.
The court, after looking over the evil
dence, has thought that in possibly one
or two instances there was evidence in.
troduced on your behalf that possibly
ought not to have gone to the jury, but
ecourt felt, in passing upon it, that
if ne erred at all he preferred to err in
, behalf of mercy, in behalf of the de-
/ fendant. The jury went out. They
! took their time. They did not 60 out
under the heat and passion Of most
logical and excellent speech, butNthey
! went out and took their time. They
were out something like fifteen hours.
If they. bad dbeen raised up to any excite
ment by the argument of counsel, it
had time to pass away. Now these
twelve men, citizens fyour county
who have lived within. a few miles of
you-probably none more than 20 or
25 miles from you have passed upon
your case,. and they have found you
guilty. Under the law they have fixed
your punishment as it was their duty to
do and they have fixed that punishment
at Imprisonment for life in the peniten-
tiary' of this state. There has never
come>to the speaker in his life of more
than forty years more painful duty
than comes to him now. Il would that
you were not guilty Of this crime, and
if believed that the evidence did not
support the verdict, if believed that
as fact, | certainly would set the ver-
dict aside, but that matter was sub
mitted to the jury and they found
against you, and the court is not pre-
pared to say that they did not find
right. So there is only one thing left
for the court to do, and that is to pro
nounce the Judgment as disclosed in the
verdict of the jury. s.
So, Mr.. Woodland, it is the judgment
and order of this court that you be con.
fined to the state penitentiary at Ft
Madison for the term of your natural
i life, and that you pay the costs of this
action.
/ The trial of Charles Woodland has in
several respects been most remarkable
one in the, history of Decatur county
J and has attracted state wide attention
] 1t was one of the hardest fought legaI
battles ever witnessed in our courts and
the trial occupied the entire time OF
the court for two full weeks, making il
4 the longest trial on record in this coun-
ty. 1t is. the only case in which the
defendant was ever accused of murder
4 ing a person by poison, and it, is the
| first time in the history of the count,
4 that resident of this county has beer
convicted Of murder in the first degree
THE REPORTER has never tried to pass
judgment on the case. The facts al
alleged were given to our readers, q
Il I. = y ~.