The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-14

| | them worked out. He claimed that Mrs. l Burch, the eolonels daughter, was state witness, her name on the indictment, and that the state should have used her if she knew anything pertinent about the case. And now, gentlemen, I am go ing to quit The responsibility which has rested on me is passing to you. You 1 know how handicapped we have been by l a failure of the state to offer any theory | at all. But there is one fact in this case 1 Which cannot be controverted. And that IS that Senator Carmack drew a revolver l first and fired first It cannot be dis 1 puted that Robin fired only when he had kto; you gentlemen are representatives of the state, you were not forced on either l side, Tor when the box was filled, there were challenges on both sides. T feel safe in the result, gentlemen and leave 1t to you
 Mccarn Begins Speech. Attorney General McCarn began his closing argument at once He said:
 It becomes my duty and my pleasure l to stand before you and argue this case. said this case, and l do not mean the case of Robert Love Taylor against E. w. Carmack. l do not mean the case of M. R. aPtterson against E. w. Carmaclk and l do not intend to appeal to prejudice or defame the dead as has been done in this case
 He eulosized the jury for it's devotion and attention and congratulated it upon the nearness of the end of it's labors.
 T have been assailed and denounced
 but, thank God, the same tongue which wagSed against me also assailed Mrs.
 Eastman, and I am proud that Washing ton asasled me, too. I haven't any time to shoot at sparrows aither. Why, Wash ington talked so much about bee-martins and sparrows that Joe Garner actually went to roost son u tree last night, and this morning he didn't know whether to so peckng at eagles or fly from limb to limb, so we clipped his wings and brought him here.
 They accuse me of abusing the de- fendants, of unjGstly prosecuting them "l am responsible for the conduct of this office and all the devils in hell cannot deter me from my duty And they say the state has no theory. Well, what Of it? When your old dad took you out to lick you did you ever know what his theory was? And did he ever ask for yours? No, he just decided from the proof that you were guilty and then lit into you. That's what we are doing. We have no theory. gentlemen, we just have
 the proof. They criticise us for not pro- ducins Mrs. Burch. Gentlemen, we pro- duced their maid. We produced their stenographer. we produced their friends,
 
 get from among their friends"
 Story of old Negro.
 General McCarn told the story of an old negro whom he had defended for murder before Judge Anderson. He said that no one in town knew of that case, but to this old negro itw as the greatest case in the world.
 They prate of the blue blood and an- cestry of these defendants. It always amuses me the way these fellows with blue blood and ancestors always think Of those ancestors when they are brought face to face with the law. Now man with blue blood and ancestors owes some i thing to this blue blood and those an- oestors and he should think of 1t before he goes out to slay. The poor negro I defended had no blue glood and no an- cestors, so the jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree. And when Judge Anderson sentenced him to death his voice was so different from his voice yesterday that I scarcely could believe the same man was talking.
 Yet, Judge Anderson made great | speech the only real law speech in this suit. And Judge Anderson had to make a pair of trousers out of two old ones. l He took what testimony he liked from the state and what he liked from the de- fense and asked to acquit on that argu-
 ment.'
 Genearl McCarn then took the first
 editorial which Cooper objected to-the 1 one in the News Seimitar of March Is,
 1908, and which Colonel Cooper claimed
 he heard Carmack had written. l That editorial was not written by Car l mack and they knew it. They introduced I 1t for one purpose, and that was because 1 it attacked Governor Patterson, and they hoped to reach you men on the Jury who
 are and were supporters of the governor.
 But I do not believe they will succeed, | gentlemen.
 | Defense AssaiIed. l General McCarn assailed the defense | for trying to make the case political 1 issue and declared that Washington's en- l tire argument was a political speech. He | denounced Washington for assailing Car ;. mack's name and declared 1t must have
 taken a big fee to talk about a dead
 man that way.
 l '"rhere are some men at this bar that l you could not hire to talk that way about 1 dead man, whether they liked him or
 hated him. And they have never had | big case, either.
 | "C/Ieral Meeks got up here and said, 1 Don't. sue a man for libel, because all | you can get is a judgment not worth | chew of tobacco. Now that Is funny ad 1 vice for a lawyer to give layman. Why, 
 gentlemen that is what courthouses are | built for. and Judgment against poor man, which he cannot satisfy, Is more l humilia ting to him than all the things l he could say about you would be to you. l And if Carmack died for that editorial l he died for something he never wrote. l St. Paul said that some men are so l vicious that they'd believe lie and be | damned for it. If he were alive today 1 he'd say these men would believe lie | and be hanged for it.
 And then comes the editorial Of Oc- | tober 21. Now there is nothing in this | that man should be killed for. He l might be sent to the penitentiary for ] life, though This editorial refers to the l trading of Bryan for Patterson and men l tions Cooper's name with others. It had | right to do it. What if one of them | were a divekeeper? We know he was
 in politics. Cooper says he was In poli-
 tics and every witness who testified all
 ways found him at democratic headquar-