Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1907-12-19
Darrow's Plea to the Jury for the Life of Adams

the Republic will jog along If this
jury in this obscuretown" should go
wrong in this case. II has survived
some time over good many mistakes
of juries and n good many mistakes of
Judges, and / think il would jog along
anyhow 1t might hurt Mr.. Knight 3
law business but not hurt the Repub-
lie.
L cant understand how a Republican
form of government is on trial, as Mr..
Knight has said. Steve Adams is
on trial for his life. Mr.. Knight says
the case is broader than simply ques-
tion of whether Adams killed Tyler.
There's some truth in that, and it is.
Mr.. Knight says we claim that il is in
some way connected with what might
be called reform movements. In a
way that is true. Not that the ques-
tion of whether Steve Adams killed
Tyler is in anyway connected with IL;
not that. But we claim that from
beginning to the end the prosecution
of Steve Adams is a humbug and a
fraud; that there is not a particle of
honesty, a particle of conscience or
particle of justice in the prosecution,
from beginning to the end. We are
not trying Steve Adams for murder;
he is placed on trial for his life before
an Idaho jury because he dared go
back on Mcfarland. That is what he
is on trial for, not for murder.
The State through its o. .cials has
been playing with this mans life;
they have been playing with il as
eat would play with a mouse. They
have considered his body and his soul
and his feelings and his family as
pawns upon the board to play a game.
And / will show it to you so you all
know it.
Dares State to Hang Adams
If Steve Adams was tried in this
court, or if any one was tried, for
the murder of Fred Tyler, well and
good; there would be nothing to il,
excepting what Mr.. Knight character
lied as a mere murder case. But that
is not the issue in this case, as Mr..
Knight has well said, and Steve
Adams is not tried for that.
Every species of beggary, every
species of artifice, every species of in
genuity, every sort Of stage-setting
and elap-trap has been paraded before
this jury TO get il TO render a verdict
against Steve Adams. What fort Do
you think they want to hang himf
say to you, gentlemen, find him guilty
if you will, the State of Idaho does not
dare hang Steve Adams.
DO you mean to tell me that Cover
nor Gooding, Senator Borah, Mr.. Haw.
ley and MCFARLAND would dare take
ia poor ignorant man like Steve Adams
and beguile him and coax him and
threaten him and use him, and then
tie a rope around his neck2 oh no
I am not worried about Steve Adams
life. There is not a man in the bunch
that would think Of doing il, OF would
ever dare do il. If the o. .cials OF
this state, charged with the prosecu
I tion of cases would dare take a man :
life whom they had petted, feasted
associated with, cared for and used ano
got his evidence, and then hang him
they would put blot and stain upon
| the State of Idaho which could never
be washed away. No! No! No!
am not afraid of that, and that is moi
I the game.
Now, let us take few of the facts
of this case, and let us see to wha'
extent the State has gone. Not I,
hang him; that is not the game. No
They believed il they could keep thi
man under their thumb that MCFARLAND
could use him to hang Haywood. Ant
they could not. And they now thinl
IL this jury should put moose aroun,
his neck, that they may use him still
TO hang Pettibone or Meyer. That i
Il al IaN l. t,r
to a Kootenai County jury by the of
ficers of Shoshone county and tn
prosecutors of the State, and that !
all there is to this case. Now let m
see whether I am right.
Crocodile Tears
Mr.. Knight has been shedding som
tears over Mrs. Thomas the mothe
OF Fred Tyler. Now don u want to b
misunderstood in this matter. Their
is not any man who does not feel sorr.
for Mrs. Thomas-the most patheti
figure in this trial to any man-an,
we all have the same instincts dow
deep in us, we all feel sorry for he
and IL anybody in this case, on eithe
side could do anything to bring bacl
her son everybody knows they woul
do it. She Is mother, ike othe
mothers and has a mothers feelin
and a mothers grief.
i But when, gentlemen of the jury
did the State develop their strong in
terest in Mrs. Thomasf When di
they commence to shed their tear
over this mothers sorrow7 Ever
tear they shed is a crocodile teai
and they care no more for Mr.,
Thomas than they do for Steve Adams
Let us see whether they do or moi
! I have been censured by Mr.. Knigh
because ] said that when the deaf
Of Bouley was heralded through tn
woods amongst the homesteaders
was welcome news. So IL was. Nov
am not here to split hairs as I
whether the homesteaders did righ
or wrong in welcoming this news.
II / have not got any homestead u
there; have not suffered becaus