The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-21
,SET7INGlO OF STAGE
 FOR COOPER TRIAL
Legal Battle Begins in Nfshuiile With
 Selection of Jury--P <dy of Car mack Has Been ,.xhumed.

Nashville. Tenn. Jan. 20.-with four jurors accepted out of fs0 examined, when court adjourned tonight, there Is every prospect that the Cooper murder trial will be hn full swing before tn week Is over. The readiness with which jurors were secured was a sur prise to every one who had watched the proceeding of the case
 The ruling of Judge Hart had not . little to do with the rapidity with which the proceedings moved. Re be- gan by fining nine tardy taIesmen S25 each. Next. he took Into his own
 hands the examination of those men who claimed to have formed an opin-
 ion. Unless the prospective juror in-
 sisted that he could not render fair verdict, even after hearing the testi-
 mony, Judge Hart held that he was a
 competent juror and compelled either the State or defense to exercise their right of peremptory challenge. The judge declared that whether or not a
 man had an opinion in the case, if he
 swore he could lay 1t aside and render
 verdict on the evidence, he was a competent juror.. when the days proceedinxs were
 over, the State exercised four Of It's eighteen peremptory challenges and
 the defense four of its seventy-two.
 The State was forced to challenge at least three men who qualified az jurors,
 but who admitted their friendship for
 some of the siefendantss and who, in the opinion of the Attorney General,
 displayed too much eagerness to serve 1 in the case.
 At least twice during the examina- ton 1t developed that some unifofu,ed
 policeman had been canvassing pro- spective jurors and one taleeIlAan swore that this policeman after questioning him carefully said, You had better
 bc careful how you serve up there"
 The Attorney General, In hts Ques-
 tions, put special stress on whether
 or not the talesman was opposed ebn- scientiously to capital punishment. One man. who said he could neither
 read nor write, had not heard very much of the case and never formed
 an opinion, declared that he was op- posed to hanging unless "a man need- ed It." He was excused.
 Miss Cooper Present.
 Every time that the States attorney
 spoke of hanging the defendants"
 der girl with Q patrician face and ex- pressive eyes, showed. by her drawn. tense expression and clinched hands, that the question, with it's grim sug- gestion of ghastly death for her >fa- ther and brother, sent the iron deep
 into her soul. She sat through the te- dious hours, however. next to her fa- ther, now and then making whispered comments to the attorneys. Two Of the nieces of Colonel Cooper. joined the little coterie that sat around the Idefendants' table this afternoon. None of the relatives of ex-Senator Carmaelx was in court, but the widow of the said editor will be present when I.the taking Of testim0ry beg4ns.
 With the stage set for the Cooper murder trial the witnesses present and the prospective jurors summoned. 1t became known today that the state had prepared a surprise for the de- fense by having the body of former
 Senator Carmack exhumed and an au-
 topsy held.
 After the murder, in the excitement attendant upon the crime, the State neglected to order a post norton. It Is essential in the trial that the dlrec- tion from which the bullets came be determined. The States theory is that Csrmack, with his hat raised to greet a woman was shot from behind. The defense asserts that he fired the first shot It seems, however, that some- time between the date of the killing and the present time. the State. secret
 ly and at night exhumed the body of the slain editor and caused careful post mortem to be performed. The course of the bullets-thus was deter mined and the State claims to have proof that the bullet which killed Car
 mack entered his neck from behind. This, however, does not entirely dis
 prove the theory of the defense. Even the defense does not claim that Colonel