The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-02
 WEAVE WEB ABOUT NEGRO Calvin Coleman Faces His Accusers. COURT ROOM IS THR0NGED Men of Both Races Attend Murder
 Tfial. pamnIns Chain es cireumssantiai rnvi- aenee Forged Against Hlsek Chsrsea wssh KiliiHs es
 sehn A. Fiaiey.
 

In court room crowded to its ca 3acity with eager spectators of both races. Calvin Coleman. the accused mur- derer of J. A. Finley. sat silently in the City Court room yesterday while witnesses weaved a web of evidence around him. pointing to him as the murderer of J. A. Finley,
 The eager crowd thronged the court room, expectantiy listening for every word that dropped from the witnesses en the stand. They heard of the hcr- ribie finding of Finiey's body February 10. They heard evidences of the ne- gro's grudge against Finley originating last summer. They heard corrobofat- Ing evidence indicating that Coleman was the last person seen with the mur- hered man. They saw the bloody gar ments proved to have been worn by Coleman on the night of the killing.
 As the trial proceeded the closely packed crowd heard witnesses tell of coleman's bloody condition early Sum say morning after the fiendish slaugh- ter. They saw the watch, keys and keyring of Finley, traced to the pos setsion of the negro. They heard how Coleman secured fresh wearing apparel lhe morning after the murder, and they listened while evidence was produced To prove that Coleman had hardened blood under and back of his finger nails when arrested.
 Tn fact. when the State rested at s:sD o'clock last evening, Solicitor Dent and his three associates had forged about The negro a chain of circumstantial evis aence most damning and most eonyinc- Ing.
 Attempt to shift Blame.
 From the evidence adduced and the method of cross-examination, conducted by Ray Rushton and Armistead Brown, counsel for Coleman, their line of de- xense, thus far. seems apparent. From indications 1t is proposed to shift the burden of the murder from Calvin Cole man to John Reese and Jerry Reese, two negroes held in jail suspected of compliicty in the murder, or upon some other negro or negroes whose identity has not yet been made known.
 The defense apparently contemplates taking an appeal if Coleman is con victed, for every opportunity was seiz- ed to enter an exception. twice in the selection of jurors, and once in the Rdmittanee by Judge Thomas Of certain evidence.
 The attorneys, representing Cole man questioned every juror rninuteIy to determine whether or not he were a member of the Knights of Pythias, of which order Mir. Finley was mem Der. This was occasioned principally by the announcement early in the day that J. T. Letcher and Thomas w. Mar tin had been employed by the Knights of Pythias of Montgomery to assist So- licitor Dent with Assistant Solicitor Temple Seibels in the prosecution of Coleman. Nevertheless, one member of the lodge. H. A. Belser of the Pike Road branch. was accepted on the jury by the defense.
 A significant feature of the first day of Cclemen's trial was the fact that the defense has but one witness in op- position to the forty witnesses whose names were announced by the State. The single witness for the defense Is Will Sanders,a negro, but what it is in- tended to attempt to prove by him will not be known until Sanders takes the stand today.
 Coleman, the I9-year- negro charged with the hendish murder of Mir Finley in Southwest Montgomery,