The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-08
 May Arrest Prominent
 Witness. TESTIMONY WAS FLATLY
 CONTRADICTED BY MANY Counsel For Both Sides Spend
 Busy Sabbath. Judxe Hart Has Requested the -At- torneys to Submit to Him Such Instructions As They
 Wish to Reach the
 Jury.


 not improbable that before the argu- ments begin tomorrow in the Cooper Sharp trial for the murder of former Senator E. W. Carmack, another ar rest for perjury will be made on the authority of Attorney General Mo- Z Carn.
 This time the accused will be a man of prominence. whose testimony was fiatly contradicted by half doz- en people of unimpeachable character. The States attorneys spent the en- tire day reading the transcript Of the testimony and preparing their notes for the arguments. They also divided the testimony into three sections so that there will be no time wasted by Duplicating their arguments. The at- torneys for the defense were equally as diligent and it was late tonight when they left Judge Andersons office for a final consultation at the jail with the defendants.
 Judge Hart has asked counsel on both sides to submit to him such in- structions as they wish to reach the jury. The attorneys have been busy upon this task for several days and will complete 1t tomorrow. The judge has prepared the statutory charge. re- quired by law which defines the iiffer- ent degrees of murderr-explains what Is necessary to constitute each and what the punishment may be. When he receives the tentative charges from counsel on both sides, he will accept, reject or amend them to suit his view of the law, add such other spe- cifc charges as he may believe the evidence justifies, and have the com pleted charge typewritten and placed in the record of the case Judge Hart is as famous for short charges as he Is for never being reversed in the supreme Court, and he has stated that this charge will be as brief as is com patible with the many and varied is- Sues developed in the trial.
 1.-Two Principal Points,
 The two points in the case which will be the subject of. flercest attack and defense will be the question of who fred the first shot and the aues- ton, what were the Coopers doing on seventh Avenue. the street which Carmack had to traverse anJ ahout the time he was wont to go to his apartments
 Mrs. Charles Eastman, who fs the only witness to the shooting aside from the principals affected and over whose shoulders practically all the shots were nred, mas sworn positively that Sena- tor Carmack began to fall from the bullet wounds which killed him be- Tore he had his revolver fairly drawn On the other hand. Colonel Cooper and Robin swear that Carmack fired first and was preparing to fire again when tebin began to work the deadly au- tomatic pistok-, The defense built up a strong excuse for the presence of the Coopers on Seventh Avenue on the afternoon of November g. It proved by Judge J. c. Bradford, Adjutant- General Fully Brown. Governor Mall colm R. Patterson and both the Coon CTS that. as the Coopers left the Brad ford office a few minutes before the tragedy and after the memorable con- ference at which Colonel Cooper agreed to drop the quarrel or leave its settle- ment to mutual friends. Governor Pat terson called General Brown on the telephone. Brown says the Governor asked him for Colonel Cooper, that he went out and called the CoIoneI back from the street and that the Colonel came back and talked to the Governor over the telephone. The Governor says he asked Colonel Cooper to come to the mansion in twenty-five minutes. The defense says 1t was while the Coopers were going there that the tragedy occurred.
 But Mrs. Blake. stenographer, and Charles Hayden, a prominent business man, swear that when Colonel Cooper left the office. after the conference, he was not called back by any one. Both sat in the outside ofice which was the only means of fngress or egress from or to the Bradford private office in which the conference was held. And further. Miss Daisy Lee. Judge Brad ford's private secretary, swears that not only was the Colonel not called back to the telephone by General Brown or any one else, but there was no incoming telephone call during that conference or after 1t until she heard Colonel Cooper's voice say:
 'Is that you, Jim?"
 "Well, Robin has killed Carmack,
 COntradicts Testimony
 It was her duty to answer the teIs- phone and she swears no call could come in without her knowledge of 1t. She did, however. hear Colonel Cooper, at Judge Bradford's suggestion,/ cali up the Governor, but did not hear what was said.
 Under the laws of Tennessee threat conveyed to person justifes the latter in killing the maker of the threat, provided only that the latter commits some overt act when the par ties meet. In this connection 1t may be interesting to quote Judge Hart's comment in ruling on the admissabfl- ity of testimony tending to show that Colonel Cooper. after the conference, had agreed to let the quarrel rest un- til settled by mutual friends. The Judge said:
 There is no denial that these threats were communicated to Senator Car mack. There is no doubt that Colonel Cooper committed an overt act when he turned around on Seventh Avenue and sought out the Senator. Now had Senator Carmack killed Colonel Coop CT, 1t would have been. clearly and be- yond doubt, a case of Justifable hom- icide. Eut Carmack did not Kill Coop CT. Instead he was killed. Hence 1t becomes proper to show that Cooper had abandoned his threat to kill Car mack. If Cooper had been killed and Carmack were on trial 1t would not be proper to show this because Car mack had not known of the change of mind on the part of Colonel Cooper"