The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-27
Kennedy Convicted of Dastardly Crime. BURNED HIS WIFE
 AND HIS cHH HDREE The Jury Was Out For Foul
 Hours. Defense set up an Aiibi but Evidence Was strong that the Inhuman Negro Had Locked up Fam-
 fly and Burned
 House.

I dours, the Jury Tn the case or the state vs. Jim Kennedy on the charge of burning his wife and children alive, last night about 8 o'clock returned a verdict Of guilty as chargeds fixing the penalty at 9S years Imprisonment in the State penitentiary.
 Kennedy received the ~A dict with . etoiid composnre, "a composure which he had maintained the whole of the day, and which never for a moment changed except when the Solicitor was summing up the case before the jury in closing for the State. He accepted the verdict calmly. and returned to the county jail under heavy guard with q light free step.
 When the case was called by Judge Thomas yesterday morning at s:30 o'clock tho east wing of the county court house was filled to its capacity. Every seat back of the railing was filled with negroes of both sexes from the rieighborhood in which the heinous crime was committed some months ago. Not only was every seat taken in the spectators gallery, but Inside the rail- ing and inside the jury boxes, white people crowded together to seeN what punishment would be meted out to the negro who sat with stolid countenance throughout the whole of the days ses- sions.
 Solicitor Dent and Assistant Solicitor Geibels had carefully worked up their chain of circumstantiaI evidence, and both were confident as they carefully Throughout the whole day. that Ren- uedy would be given the extreme pen- atty.
 At the time of the arraignment of the capital prisoners Judge Thomas ap- pointed three young law graduates for the defense. Dsvis staksiy, Logan Mar tin and H. seay, and yesterdays trial was their maiden appearance in fhe criminal courts of the state.
 It will be remembered that on quiet Sunday night several months ago while the negroes in the neighborhood of Watt street near the end of Highland Park had gone to church. small ne- gro cottage was burned almost to the ground, incinerating three little chil. dren and so badly burning the mother that she died three or four days later from the effects of the burn and shock.
 Kennedy's Guilt.
 Jim Kennedy. the husband of the burned woman and the father of one of the children. was accused of the crime by the inhabitants of the negro section, and 1t was with difficulty and only byI trick that the police were able to land Kennedy in the city Jail. A mob of enraged negroes armed to the teeth were just starting out on a hunt to lynch Kennedy when the police arrived and outwitted them.
 F U citement ran high, and many of the better class of negroes in the city ask. ed that the negro be turned over to them for proper punishment. A petis ton and request was made upon Sher- if Hood that Kennedy be turned over to members of his own race that he might be dealt with, the committee as- surfing the sheriff that he would have nothing to fear from Kennedy after so doing.
 Nothing violent was. however. done or even attempted, but yesterdays sat- isfaction. when the verdict was an- nounced. showed the temper of the ne- groes of the city. Many of them about the court house openly expressed the hope that the jury would return a ver- diet giving Kennedy the extreme pen- atty of hanging.
 Horace Campbell, Jim Kennedy's' father-in-iaw. was the first witness put upon the stand. The old man swore that his daughter and Jim Kennedy had been separated at the time of the fire about three weeks, and that she was living with him on Watt Stret. On the gone to church. leaving his daughter and of the children asleep.
 On returning from church. Horace stated that he had seen Jim Kennedy, had converted with him. and agreed to meet him at the branch of the Red
  ace said he discovered theyf in about half an hour.
 The old man then testifed as to Jim's cruelty to his wife. and the threats which he had made. On account of these threats a separation had been made. and Jim was still threatening to do all sorts of things to his wife if she did not come back out on the Ledyard place and live with him.
 A Siaser's Evidence.
 Mary Campbell. a sister. testified that she had seen Jim in her room un- der the bed Her testimony consisted mainly. however, as to the origin of She fire. The negrese stated that the back porch was the most burned, and that no fire was in the house except a lamp. which was in the front room and which lamp was burning at the time the Are was discovered.
 Mariah Campbell. Jim's wife's moth CT, told the jury that she had talked to her son-In-law on Saturday night before the fire on Sunday night, and that Jim had thrown his pistol on the bed and declared: 'It makes no diRery sncs what ! do. I got somebody to get me out" And two weeks before the fire had stated;
 ~x'm going to be the death of Dug (the wtfe's nicknamsl and I don't cars what they do to me"
 On the night of the ire Marian said that Jim came to the house and said:
 ''You had better open your door. for I'm going to do something, and don't care what they do to me-"
 Mariah Campbell also testinAd as to the lamps in the house. She stated that but one lamp was lighted. and that on ewas in her own room, which was burning at the time she walked up by the roaring of the flames on the back porch.
 Seeing that the whole of the back of the house was afire, she grabbed two oe the little children and made for a place of safety, leaving the wife of Jim Ken.