The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-22
Convicted of Killing Her
 Mother. WOMAN GRASPS SON
 TO BOSOM AND S0BS Twelve Men Declare She is Guilty
 of Crime.
Ewo verdicts Carrying Heavy Penalties Are Received Close Together.
 Quick Record in Case of Ne-
 gro who Killed wife.
nY TARLrToN CoLLrnn.

Cianton, May zl-NSpeciai J-- Witnih Hess than five minutes of each other. two iuries rendered verdicts tonight which entailed the most severe penal ties ever Inflicted In the criminal his- tory of Chiffon County.
 At a few minutes of o'clock this evening. the jury in the case of Mrs. Hattie Pope. charged with the murder of her mother. Mrs. Mary Jane King. returned verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree and fixing the pun ishment at life imprisonment.
 Hardly had the excitement at the an- nouncement passed. when the jury in the case of John Lawson. q negro, charged with killing his wife, Hattie Lawson. at Jemison. last week. return ed verdict of guilty. and fixed the death penalty. Judge Pearson set July as the day for the negro to be hanged.
 The case of Lawson represents one of the most swift visitations of justice in Alabama's legal history. To kill his wife, escape to Montgomery, to be caught as suspicious character. tden- tined as the Jemison murderer. tried and convicted within the space of nine days. is the record of John Lawson
 All interest here. however, centered sn the case of Mrs. Pope The jury re- eeived the case following the charge of Judge Pearson. at about 2 o'clock this Afternoon.
 Seated in the court room. Mrs. Pope awaited. during the four hours, for the verdict. It came at o'clock: The crowd abot the court room. also awaiting the verdict. stood bfeathless. many who had attended the trial for the three days of It's progress. and who had gone from the court house. were noiseIessly summoned; the room liIled.
 we, the jury, find the defendant guilty, and fix the penalty at life in- prisonment."
 Woman Breaks D0wn.
 At the reading. the stiffness broke. Mrs. Pope. who had maintained. for the two months and more. since the murder of her mother. stolid silence. almost an apparent indifference. broke down. The repression of the weeks, the strain of the trial, had broken her nerve. With low cry. almost a groan. she bowed her head. and sobbed: the woman who had impressed, by her behavior. as one Impervious to remorse. calious to griet Her listle son. Claude Pope, sidled to her, as attorneys and the jury and the court attendants. withdrew from about her. The sight of the child strength ened the emotion: she clutched the boy to her lap; hugged him tightly.
 Te prisoner, after the sentence. was taken to jail by Sheriff Catts. The trial which had awakened unprecedented in- teresr Tn Chiffon County, was ct an end. the verdict no surprise.
 The court room. at the time of the jury's return, was comparatively frees for the first time since the beginning Of the trial, of the feminine contingent of Clanton. There were a few. but not q tenth as many as had been in attend ance since the first.
 A re-hearing will be asked. and an appeal taken in event of refusal. to the Supreme Court.
 The last day of the trial opened with the arguments of J. O. Middleton for the defense, and Solicitor Askew for the State. County Solicitor Adams, and Tipton Mullin, for the defense. had spoken last night.
 The defense was as to evidence, com paratively weak with barely more than the denials of Mrs. Pope and her s.year-old son to the circumstantial testimony of the prosecution. But with this in hand. the attorneys worked desperately with logic. with denials, with efforts at impeachment of States witnesses. After the arguments more than one expression of opinion that &C., ouittal would result was heard.
 But the State had worked, and with a mass of linking circumstantial evi- dence to show as a result, the convic- tion was secured
 ed that an alibi had been established by evidence showing that MrA Pope was at the residence of George Moore during the early afternoon of tho mur- der, and that Mrs King had been seen by school children, alive. at 12 o'clock.
 Evidence Was Strong.
 The defense dwelt on the apparent fact that the blood stains of the cloth ing of Mrs. Pope appeared to have been made on the inside, as if some one had mopped the blood on the floor with the garment; that the bloody butcher knife, offered by the State in evidence had evidently been placed in inc trunk with the bloody clothes by some one after Mrs. Pope was under guard for 1t was not, the defense in4 sisted there on the night of the murder when a search was mades that the hand that placed the knife in the trunk which was not the hand of Mira. Pope, mad taken her shoes from under her he'd at the dead of night to make the teIl-tale footprints about the grave. and had mopped the blood with Mrs. Pope's garments.
 The State presented the circum- stantial evidence, linked into a con- elusive chain by the lawyers. The ai- leged illegitimate love between War ren Woods and Mrs. Pope, to which Mrs. King. in hypothesis objected. was nreaanted as the motive for the crime bR the State.
 The motive was aoknowledgediy the doubtful point. Bne Judge PearscnS In nhnrnEsanr Aha ftirV. daclaraA thaE ik Wan