The log cabin Democrat. [volume] (Conway, Ark.) 1901-1982, 1909-01-21
W|FE-MURDERER IS CONVICTED
Jury, After Long Deliberations,
Reaches Verdict.
Convicted Man was Absolutely Unmoved
by Decision OF the Jury
Court Proceedings.
FROM SATURDAYS DAILY.

FROM SATURDAYS DAILY.
eve the jury find the defendant,
James Cartwright, guilty of muir
der in the second degree and fix
his punishment at 2I years in the
penitentiary. 7. J. Middleton,
Foreman.
The above verdict was returned
in the Faulkner circuit court at ten
o'clock this morning, after the
Jury had spent nearly 24 hours Ill
an apparently vain endeavor to
come to an agreement. The jury
at first stood eight for conviction
to four for acquittal, those tavorlng
conviction differing among them
selves as to the degree of the pun
ishment. 1t was not nntll this
this morning that united verdict
seemed in any way possible.
Cartwright, who had sat through
the entire trial with an expression
of utter imbecility on his face, was
absolutely unmoved by the reading
of the verdict and there are many
who believed that he did not COM
prehend what the jury's decision
meant.
Cartwrlght's Crime.
lanes w. Cartwright shot and
killed his wife. Maud CARTWRIGHT,
at their home two miles west OF
Wooster, at nine O'Clock on the
morning of Thursday, August 21.
The tragedy was horrible one,
Cartwright firing at the defenseless
woman without warning. The
first shot failed to infict a mortal
wound, and as she ran from him
he reloaded his gun and fired the
second time, and then went up to
his PROSTATE victim, placed the
muzzle of his gun close to her neck
and fired the third time, the dis
charge almost tearing her head
from her body.
Cartwright fled after the killing
and was not captured until the
night of the second day following,
when, worn out and famished, he
approached the house of J, J. Dick
ems near Greenbrier and asked for
food and was shortly afterward ar
rested. While he was hiding, he
said that he spent most of the time
sitting in the edge of a stream,
with water up to his neck, and his
head concealed in the bushes.
The Indignation of the people in
his neighborhood was so intense
over the crime that special grand
jury was called by Judge Eugene
Lankford, convening on Sept. IS.
This grand jury returned an indict-
ment against Cartwright for muir
der in the first degree.
Defense was Insanity.
Cartwright made no effort to en-
ploy counsel and the court ap-
pointed Judge P. H. Prince and
George Shaw to defend him. The
facts of the killing were admitted,
the sole defense being insanity.
Evidence was introduced to show
that he had on several former oc-
casions become mentally deranged,
and that he had received several
injuries about the head in accl-
dents. The state introduced to
testimony to show that the rela-
tions between Cartwright and his
wife were not amicable and that he
suspected her of infdelity, thus
proving a motive for the crime.
The jury's decision was based
upon an instruction of Judge Lank-
ford to the effect that if the grand
Jury found that Cartwright, while
possessing a knowledge of right
and wrong, was mentally deranged
to such an extent that the killing
was not premeditated, they could
render a verdict of murder in the
second degree.
The verdict of the jury was
received with expressions of salts
faction by almost everyone. The
trial was long and expensive to the
county, costing according to all es-
innate by County Judge Lea this
morning, in the neighborhood OF
$500. Opinion was greatly di-
vided as to Cartwright's sanity,
but;the sentiment was almost un-
animous that he ought not to be
allowed liberty.
The sentence will be pronounced
either late this afternoon or Monday