Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-10-21
Nebraska
CHERRY LYNCHERS TO PRISON
Men Who Hung Charles Seller,
Start to Penitentiary.
STATES LAWYERS FILE CLAIMS
Captain A. G. Fisher nnd VI. +. IIar-
rinEtOn Have Demanded Fifteen
Hundred Dollars for Prepar-
ing Their Case.


VALENTINE. Neb.. oct. 20-Cspeclal)
George Weed. Alma Weed. Kenneth
Weed, Kenneth Murphy and Harry
Heath, the four men sentenced to serve
the remainder of their lives in the state
penitentiary for the murder Of Charles
Perry Sellers on June Is, were taken to-
day to Lincoln to begin serving their
sentences.
Eunice Murphy, the young woman
charged with having melted the murder.
against whom the state was unable to
make its case after Judge westover d.
rected the county attorney to accent a
plea of guilty Of murder in the second
degree from the men who committed the
crime, has left Cherry county. She de-
parted Immediately after the trial for
the east and it is not known here where
she has gone.
County Attorney Tucker was assisted
in the trial by Captain Fisher Of Chad
ron and by NJ. r. Harrington Of ONelll.
These attorneys had collected their evil
dence to such an extent that they be-
lieved themselves absolutely secure in a
first degree verdict from the jury.
ME-. Harrington had made a contract
was to receive $1,000 for his services II
any Of the defendants stood trial, but
that IL they pleaded guilty he was to re-
ceive whatever compensation was reason
able. Both he and Fisher have put in
claims for 1880 each.
TyrrelI Talks of Case.
LINCOLN, Neb., oct. 2O-(special.)-
+. NJ. Tyrrcll of this city, who was as
ISOLATED in the defense of the four men
who were tried at Valentine for the
murder of Charles Perry Sellers, arrived
in the city late last night. He declared
today that the results obtained through
the brief trial appeared to be satisfactory
to the people of Cherry county and that
he had heard no complaint with regard
to the sentence of life imposed upon the
four men.
TO the intimaton as voiced in press
reports, that Judge Westover had ex-
ceeded his rights when he ordered the
states attorneys to accept a plea of
guilty of murder in the second degree.
Attorney Tyrrell said:
No. / do not consider that Judge
Westover established a new precedent
when he ordered the states attorneys
" oSSSpl a pea OI second degree muir
der. The county attorney is an officer
of the court, and is under orders of the
court The court could have ordered a
Tnanslaughter verdict If he wanted to
and the county attorney would have
been forced to accept. 1t was no more
an abuse of power on the part of the
court than to take a case from a jury
and direct a verdict, or for a court to
nolle PROSE- a case when attorneys have
neglected to bring it to trial.
THE scene in the court room when
the boys were sentenced was the sad
dest one have witnessed in twenty-five
years before the bar. 1t is said in press
! dispatches that the boys were unpre-
turbed but they were anything but that.
They will not be paler when they are
dead than they were when they stood
up to be sentenced. They knew what
was coming. 1t had been agreed upon
and we did not offer any statement ask
ing for clemency. Harry Heath had
been brought in first and had pleaded
guilty"