The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-06-29

tolls than did W. ]. fowler few min
utes later, and he has told you he was
armed because he was going off on a
journey, but why was fowler armed
There are some things in this law
suit hard to explain. Mr.. fowler tells
you it was his habit not to go the
same streets the defendant was accus
tom to travel, yet on the night of the
shooting we find him following closely
behind this defendant After the de-
PENDANT had passed the group at the
corner of the postofice, you have been
told that one man said to fowler,
thought this trouble was all over with
and you hear the reply from the prose
cutor There may be more of it.
This prosecutor tells you that Gordon
was trying to waylay him, yet believ'
ing this, you see him following on up
the street, watching this defendant all
the time. Does he stop at the Maury
National Bank, when he knows this
defendant is just around the corner?
No, he follows on Does he stop at
the Mitchell-Ashley corner after, as he
tells you, he saw the defendant go
down that street toward the shade of
the trees? No, he follows on. Is this
a reasonable course to persue? Who
is OookinO tho ODOrfupi+v RI lin rou,
Wilson Frierson has told you that
this defendant was a subscriber for a
book or paper which came weekly or
twice a week. Mr. VOORHEES, grew
most sarcastic over the story told by
this defendant of the scene on the cor
ner. He dwells with eloquence on
what he called the righteousness of
big man being dragged down the
street by man smaller in size, but
you must remember that the strength
of this defendant had been impaired
by pistol shot, and coming to the
shooting fowler tells you that he fired
first and fired two shots in rapid sue
cession. AS far as the facts of that
encounter go, | don't believe the story
of either man gives the exact facts
Looking at it from a common sense
view | think there is as much sense in
Gordon's statement as in Towler's.
The police put most of the shooting
at the fowler gate. Mr.. fowler says
most of the shooting occurred at the
steps of the Democrat office. The de-
PENDANT places the scene still further
up the street. We know the two were
so close that this defendants hand
and shirt were powder burned, and the
exact spot of the shooting is immater-
ial, anyway, the only fact of material
interest at this point is whether this
defendant went down there to way
lay Will fowler Taking the state
ment of the prosecutor, what does he
say this defendant did? Why he sim
ply said, Don't move, I've got you
now. Did he draw pistol? Was
that the action of man who had gone
to waylay and kill man? Was there
anything wrong so far? But who was
it who committed the first overt act
Who started the shooting? Will Tow
Ter tells you himself that he did. He
wanted this mans wife He wanted
this mans life, and followed him down
there to get him out of the way of the
policemen who are backing him up in
his. And now the firing is over. You
see the defendant in this case wounded
and bleeding; you see the prosecutor
walk away uninjured. Is that the
end? No. They ask you to convict
his man who had suffered all these
Kings of attempted murder in the first
legree,
Mr.. Fisuers then explained the law
md the evidence required for a con-
fiction under this head, and said that
lnder the circumstances, if Gordon had
lilled fowler, he would not have been
guilty OF murder in the first degree. !
No man would ever know the exact
acts of the difficulty and it was not
necessary that the jury know them all |
But there were some facts they did |
NOW and one of them the prosecutor
lad told them and that was that he
lad fired the first shot Attorney Gen
raj Garner, gentlemen of the jury, is
Prosecuting the wrong man, he has
he wrong man under Indictment but !
is the way Of grand juries to return
n indictment on the evidence of the /
rst man, who appears as accusor and
urn down the second man.
The whole thing stands this way:
Viii fowler wanted the wife of Mat
hers Gordon; Will fowler wanted the
fe of Matthers Gordon, and Will Tow
er is now asking you to put the
tripes on this same man; but in put
h. -. M