The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1906-05-03
A QUICK VERDICT
Atlanta Woman Who Slew
Sister Found "Not Guilty."
MADE PLEA OF INSANITY
Closing Chapter of the Most sensa-
ticna Tragedy Ever Enacted in
At,anta-Some Features of
the Trial.

the Trial.
eve, the jury, find the defendant
not guilty." was the verdict reached
ir less than ten minutes in the case
of Mrs. Willie Standifer, who was
tried in the criminal branch OF the
superior court in Atlanta Friday for
the killing of her sister, Miss Chapel
Whisenant, on March 9 last.
The verdict was given in a silence
that was oppressive. The stiffness
was so intense that the breathing OF
the people in the packed court room
was audible. There would probably
have been an outburst Of applause II
Judge Roam had not commanded that
there should be no demonstration, no
matter what the verdict was. He
called to the sheriff to stop the jury,
as it was about to file into the court
room, and said:
There must be no demonstration,
whatever the verdict in this case may
be. This is a court room, and l IN
struct the deputies to arrest the first
rerson who makes a demonstration.
That was why the verdict was re-
ceived in such deep silence.
The women who sat near the pris-
oner, her sisters and friends, dropped
their faces in their hands and wept.
Mrs. Standifer looked about her like
a frightened child, and clasped and un-
clasped her fingers nervously.
The last chapter in one OF the most
pathetic tragedies that ever occurred
in Atlanta had ended. A poor, frall
woman upon whom death is about to
set its seal in ''corsumption's ghastly
FORM" had been arraigned at the bar
of Justice for Staying her own sister.
Her plea was that she was so goaded
to desperation by a heartless husband,
who had found in her young sister
victim for his faithlessness, that she
became so madly insane that she slew
her sister to save her from dishonor,
and to protect herself and little child
from the social ruin that must fol-
low.
The jury was out nine and half
minutes when they announced that
they were ready with verdict. The
foreman handed the slip of paper to
the clerk of the court, who took 1t and
read:
1--WE, the jury, find the defendant
not guilty
The story had all been told, and
Mrs. Standifer left the court room,
with her sisters and lady friends,
free woman in the eyes of the law,
and doubtless in the sight Of that
God to whom she appealed in the last
words Of her statement to the jury.
At one time while Mr.. WescMore-
land, the woman's attorney, was speak
ing to the jury, Mrs. Standifer faint
ed, and her sisters mad to revive her
ay throwing water a her face.
Two startling features marked the
trial. One was Mrs. Standifer's plea
Of delusiopary insanity and the other
was the ruling out by Judge Roam OF
ten letters from Standifer to Miss
Whisenant, which We to have been in
troduced at the trial of Standifer on
a charge Of immortality; the testimony
also of G.. W. Bailey, night watchman
at the American Can Co., and that
cf James Dilbro, the negro hackman,
who swore at the preliminary hear
ing that he had taken Standifer and
the girl to a questionable resort on
Collins street on the night before the
tragedy, was ruled out