Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-13

temptation to come and hear what sem
sation Mr.. Davis had in store.
Sit Face to Face.
Mrs. Sutton and her daughter sat in
their usual places beside the long table
of the court of inquiry Facing them
across the board sat the accused. Adams.
Utley, Ostermann, Bevan, Willing and De
Hart.
Never during the whole inquiry has the
face to face positions of the mother and
the young men present her son S death
the men who avowedly hated him ana
blackened his character before the court
and testified to having beaten him-ap-
peared more strange than during the Dit
ter moments of Mr. Davis arrangement
The accused officers had evidently fore
seen hard time of it ahead for them.
and had. braced themselves to meet any
denunciations that Mr.. Davis might have
in store.
Mrs Sutton was not so impassive and
was deeply affected at those moments
when Mr.. Davis made reference TO her
sons death, to the feelings of his family.
to the long fight on their part to clear
him of the brand of suicide, and to the
difficulties and obstacles with which the
Suttons had COPIED for twenty months in
efforts to have the facts brought TO light.
Mr.. Davis began his remarks with
vocate in withdrawing from the case
without summing up. Leaving the case
open as between Mrs. Sutton and the par
ties aligned as defendants, he said. had
imposed him a duty as Mrs. sutton $
attorney which he had not souSht-a
duty which he meant however. now to
fulfill That duty he said. was to present
the case against the accused .ofneers
Mothers Sacrifice to Country.
I,or araa
of Sutton, Mr.. Davis told of the youths
coming to Annapolis. Her sons career
had been offered by his mother to his
countrys service.
He had entered the United States serv-
ice, young man of high ambition and
strong hope and aspirations. His let
tiers to his mother and brother, Don SUIT
ton. had shown him to be a young man
with brave and hopeful attitude toward
his future. He was not the kind of man
who would be expected to take his own
life.
The day of October II. Sutton's last
day of life, contained nothing to lead him
to suicide. On the contrary it closed with
pleasant evening with some of SUIT
tons best friends in Annapolis. includ-
ing Prof. Coleman and Miss Stewart.
Sutton. on that evening, according to
Coleman's testimony, was in sociable,
contented frame of mind and showed
ID
speaking of her in pleasant terms. With
in hour after that he had met with
violent death.
At the original inquest into Sutton's
death he was pronounced. after brief
and incomplete investigation, to be
suicide, said Davis That inquest was
conducted by a court of which Lieut..
Willing was member, and Willing was
the man who should have saved Sutton.
If it could be done. But for Vikings
inf{ in 11rfv &c nf
day, Sutton might now be alive
The board of inquest. he said. acted
with indecent haste, with no notice to
Lieut.. Sutton's family, placing upon him
Christian burial, according to the family
faith. and consigning him to an uncon-
secrated grave: stripping his parents of
hope of reunion with him hereafter and
condemning him, as they were compelled
to believe, to eternal punishment.
Mrs. Parker's Efforts Told Of.
The next feature that Mr.. Davis took
up was Mrs. Parker's visit to Annapolis
He recalled to the court Utleys alleged
assertion of hatred to her brother made
to Mrs. Parker at that time. Mr.. Davis
then went on to recite Mrs. Parker's in
terview with Adams and her account of
the admissions that he had made to her
as to how Sutton had been beaten and
how she had pleaded to Adams for help,
to remove from her brothers name the
stigma of suicide.
He said the only recourse of the family
was an inquiry such as the one just
closed. He outlined the more than TWEEN
ty months of effort on the part of SUIT
toms mother and sister to bring this
about
Mrs. Sutton's suspicion. he said, grew
with the delay. 1t was intensified by re-
Bluffs and disappointment and turned into
conviction which found expression in de-
nunciation which could not, he said, be
thought strange.
There were some features of the case.
said Mr.. DEVASTATING up the matter
of the fatal event-that might be elm
mated. The affair had been character
lied as drunken brawl. but it did not
matter whether the participants had
been drunk, or, has been testified, sober
That did not change the facts.
Sutton's alleged former escapades.
dwelt upon by the accused, shed no
light on the case before the court Nor
were his mothers accusations an issue.
First Inquest Criticised.
He sketched the events of the even
ing and night as shown by what he de-
clared were uncontroverted facts, and
criticised that part of the finding of the
first board of inquest, which says:
From a thorough investigation and
from the evidence before it, which it
beheves is all the evidence procura b1e,"
declaring that a vast amount of testi-
mony had not been brought out by the
board of inquest. though easy of access
Mr.. Davis declared that the fights that
Immediately preceded Sutton's death were
not fought by Sutton, but by the others
who have on the witness stand acknowl-
edged bitter enmity against Sutton He
pointed to the marked difference in the
testimony of Lieuts Adams I.tley Oster-
mann and others and declared that SUIT
ton. after going to camp and arming
himself for self-protection, counsel con-
tended. returned toward the scene of the
fight merely to recover his clothing
He ridiculed the idea that Sutton killed
himself because he thought he killed
there was no appreciable interval between
the exclamation. He has killed Rocker"
and the firing of the fatal shot Mr.
Davis declared that parts of Lieut..
Adams testimony are pure invention and
pointed out conflicts in the testimony of
others of the young lieutenants and to
inconsistencies and contradictions in the
testimony of individuals.
Hand Stained With Blood"
Lieut.. Adams. he said had twice
changed his testimony to meet the ext
gencies of the evidence with which he
had' been confronted. Mr.. Davis declared
that Adams testimony that Sutton
changed the two pistols from one hand to
another showed that Adams knew that