The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-21
Iury Out Only Half an
 Hour. THE VERDICT FOLLOWED
 SENSATIONAL ARGUMENT Defendant Betrayed Excitement for
 First Time. The Court Room at wetumpka Was Filled With Spectators That Blocked to the Railing When Notice Was Received That
 Verdict Had Been
BY CHARLES l.. HAROLD.

Wetumpka. March 20.--(SpeciaL)- Dreamland suffered a severe jolt thr- afternoon when the jury in the Alfred Allen case rendered verdict for mur- der in the second degree and gave the wife-siayer a punishment of twenty five years imprisonment.
 The jury was out only half an hour in their deliberations Tne court room was filled with spectators that focked to the railing when notice came to the judge that a verdict had been reached.
 The defendant was brought into court. He had been transferred to jail only few minutes after the most severe arraignment of a man heard at the present term of the Circuit Court This was administered by acting Solic- itor F. W. Lull, who lost in this case none of his reputation for earnest, un- abating powers of prosecution. The witness appeared no less affected by the proceedings than during the exact-9 ing trial through which he had passed the day before. His aged father-in- law and his weazened mother in Jaw. the latter holding the two-months' old babe of the defendant in her arms, sat within easy hearing of the jury fore man who walked gravely from the room behind the witness stand.
 The Judge asked: Gentlemen, have you arrived at a verdictT'
 To this the foreman replied: We have" and handed the document to Judge Pearson on which were written the fatal words. The defendant for the first time betrayed excitement He twisted his hands with the other more neryously than he had yet done. He was taken silently from the court room back to the jail where he must wait untIi sentence day and then until the authorities call to take him to the pen- itentiary, probably the Walls, Tn whsss shadows he endured the scathfng ar. raignment of court. No notice of ap- peal has yet been given.
 The Argument.
 The verdict of guilt followed sensa. tional and effective arguments of attor- neys on either side. Solicitor LuI brought to bear on the case his unre- hitting powers of denunciation from the very start and for little more than an hour told of the character of the defendant and the relations of his wife which proved the motive for the crime. Following him was counsel for Allen. Lloyd Tate, who spoke for about an hour and half in his strong ap- peal to the jury. He made the very best of the case. according to all who heard his argument, and compared fit with the evidence. But. as he declared
 
 the disadvantage of not having possi- bly a friend in the County. For this reason he believed his client ought to have had the sympathy of the jury.
 But not alone to the sympathy did Mr. Tate appeal. He took up the thread of Aliens story and followed 1t minutely to the tragic climax when. laborlng under the deiusions of his dream, he leaped from his bed and with single-barrel shotgun fired the load into the mysterious figure at the door. The whole story was told in more CO., herent style by the lawyer than by the defendant on the witness stand. With all his eloquence and force of logic Mfr Tate tried to take away the novelty and strangenes of the dream" story of the uxorcide. It had sounded crude when first spread by Allen in the neigh borhood of the crime in the newspa- pers and further and more insistently when he was jailed for murder.
 With polish and plausibility Aliens counsel tried hard to dress up the dream defense. He tried to rob the de- fendant's story of all the mystery and strangeness that might prejudice tho jury. Such defense had not been att tempted before. At least it was new t0 Fillmore county. Probably. too. they had wearied of the brainstorms and all that looked like them. Mir. Tate worked hard to build the psychological phe- nomenon that should excuse his client from the murder of his wife. There were repeated the stories of fire arms discharged on the night of the killing.
 It had been proved that Allen was informed of threats to run him off the Cooper place where he was working as a farm hand. These worked on his mind. he claimed It furnished the abric for horribl le visions on that fate full night of February Is. From it were woven dreams of burglars broak- ing into the'house where he slept with his wife. This Counsel Tate went over in detail. improving the sequence of events and things in general so as--ro make 1t reasonable to the jury.
 Tears Up Dream.
 But the jury. like the father-in- law
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