Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1906-01-04
COURT REACHES A FINDING.
TESTIMONY IN DECATUR CASE
IS TRANSMITTED
To Admiral James b. Sands For
His Consideration - No
table Court Mar
tial Trial.
COURT CONDUCTED SIMILAR
TO STATE LAWS.

S8Neas 49, NnaA MAA1 AALAAE NstL4N
TO an end yesterday afternoon and
the court, after a session of nearly
two hours. reached a finding, which
will be transmitted TO Admiral Sands,
superintendent of the Naval Acad-
envy, for his action. 1t will be made
| public after the record is returned by
him.
The case is in many ways the most
notable court martial that has taken
place at the Academy. Ii is the first
one based ON the information obtained
by the court of inquiry which Ad-
miral Sands detailed TO investigate
thoroughly hazing at the Academy
and is the forerunner of many other
trials. Decatur stands number six in
the class which will graduate next
month ana is liueal descendant of
the famous naval hero of the same
name.
There are four specifications under
| the charge. the first three relating to
the alleged hazing of Midshiuman
Isaac N. McCrary. and the other to
Midshipman Gaylord Church. IL is
specified that he hazed them by com
polling the former to stand on his
head, perform mo. l6" and "the
leaning rest, common forms of baz-
| ing at tie Academy, and the latter by
| compelling him to perform "No. 16. "
Both McCrary and Church swore posi-
tiely that Decatur bad hazed them
and Decatur was equally positive in
| his statement under oath that he had
never done so.
1t is conceded that Decatur is more
| in danger of a conviction under the
last specification, as ,he admitted or
dering Church to his room, where he
was hazed, but denied haziDg him.
| However. there was a persistent rumor
last evening that Decatur has been
acquitted, but will Immediately be
charged with neglect of duty in not
| reporting Church's hazing. Today
the court took mp the case of Midship-
| man Worth w. Foster, of New Albany,
Ind, charged with hazing Fourth
Classman Chester S. Roberts, of
| Joliet, Ill.
In the Decatur case, the prosecution,
/ it is said, must stand on the case as
made out by its own witnesses and the
| allegation as to time, place aud iden-
/ tity made by MoCrary hal been abso.
i lutely disproved. The overwhelming
/ proof was that MoCrary was not in
room 9S, Decatur's room, when he said
that he had been hazed. Mr.. Ran.
dali urged very strongly in his closing
| remarks that the testimony of Deca-
tur was of as much weight as that of
| McCrary aud that he absolutely denied
that he had ever hazed the latter.
| Not only is their reasonable doubt
| in this case, - Mr.. Randall said, "but
we submit that the preponderence of
4 evidence is in favor of tho defence. -
Mr.. Il. S. Theall. of Washinton,
| confined himself to the discussion of
the fourth specification, which charged
| that Decatur had hazed Gaylord
Church by compelling him to perform
mo. rs. y He said that they were
not so fortunate in this part of the
| charge as the other, inasmuoh as the
witness had not fixed definite time
as to his hazing and the defence was
| compelled to cover leriod of several
weeks. Still, he said, that were ia
vored by the fact that they knew that
| the accused denied ever hazing Church
| in any manner.
Church's own testimony, Mr.. ThealI
oontended, sufficiently raised doubt
as to Decatur guilt. He quoted from
| the record To show that Church had
said that he did not know Decatur at
the. time of the hazing except "by in
stinot, and that he Twas under the
| impression" that Decatur was the one
VIII ldu LhLtu MIN. you COn-
vict man on the evidence of knowl-
edge gained by instinct" Mr.. Theall
said, land because someone was under
the impression that he had committed
| offenses % He also referred to the
fact that Church's evidence had been
impeached by the testimony of his
! classmates to the effect that Church
had said, appropose of newspaper
article, that the more he thought the
matter over the more unwilling he
was to swear that Decatur was the
man who had hazed him.
The remainder of Mr.. Theall's re-
marks were devoted to a discussion of
Decatur S admission that he had or
dered Church to report to his room
and that there he had been hazed by
another midshipman. He said that
under the charges and the Act of 1874,
under which they were drawn, the
mere countenancing of hazing or per-
mission of it, did not constitute haz-
ing and that the acts of Decatur or
his omissions did not justify a con-
viction of the charge. There is no
proof, said Mr.. Theall, that Decatur
had any other intention than to de-
liver a leprimand to Church, as De.
catur stated. and no attention to haze
or have Church hazed can be imputed
to him.
The remarks of Judge Advocate
were extremely brief, but very much
to the essential points. He said that
his theory of the testimony of McCrary
was that the latter had made an hon.
est mistake as to the day on which
Decatur had hazed him, brit that he
was unable to believe that he had
concocted deliberately false statement
against an upper classman. He quoted
from Laucheimer on court martials,
and Winthrop on military law and
presidents, TO show that an honest
mistake on the part of a witness as to
a detail did not lessen the value of
his testimony on other points. Deca-
tur, he said, had admitted that he
could not remember more than one
member of the Hungarian Band, -
which was composed of a dozen or
more fourth classmen and which had
performed in his room twice. He
also admitted that many fourth class
men had been in his room, but could
not give their names. 1t was. there
fore, reasonable to suppose that he did
not remember McCra1y and much less
reasonable 10 suppose that McCrary
should have forgotten Decatur.
As TO the fourth specification. the
Judge Advocate said that the admis-
sions of the accused TO the effect that