Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1911-08-26
BEATTIE JURY
COMPLETE
The Taking Of Testimony Was
Begun This Morning.
WIfE'S UNCLE FIRST WITNESS
The Alleged Wife Slayer Faces a
Jury Of Which Nine Of lts Members
Are Lean and 1ronzed Farmers.

-
The jury which will decide whether
Henry Clay Beattie, Jr.. of Richmond
shall go to the electric chair. con-
victed of wife murder. was completed
In battered old Chesterfield court.
house at Chesterfield Courthouse, Va.
The battle for human life began at
10 o'clock this morning. to which
hour the court had adjourned. The
commonwealth then called Its first
witness.
The prisoner was locked up for
the night in the small jail here, and
was not returned to the Richmond
jail during the night. His grayhaired
father embraced him and journeyed
home in a dusty public conveyance
surrounded by the curious throng.
Made up almost entirely of lean,
bronze-faced farmers, the jury. as
completed. follows the lines indicated
by Mondays selections. The names
OF the twelve men, as they remain
after the defense exercised its four
peremptory challenges on the panel Of
sixteen, are as follows:
No. IN. W. Farley. quarryman,
thirty-seven years old.
No. Pc. l.. Wilson, farmer, thirty.
eight years old.
No. "A. l.. Fetteroff. contractor.
thirty.four years old.
No. 4--Irving l.. Bass. Jr.. farmer.
thirty years old.
No. 5-v. w. Fuqua, farmer. TWEEN
ty.seven years old.
No. 6-W. l.. Burgess. farmer. fifty.
two years old.
No. I'M. E. Purdie. farmer. TWEEN.
ty-sevon years old.
No. S-M. C. Robinson. farmer.
forty-four years old.
No. 9-Thomas A. Hancock, farm
er, thirty-sevon years old
No. l0-Lewis Robertson. farmer.
forty-four years old.
No. 11-W. p. Rocks. farmer. forty
eight years old
No. 12-M. L. Blankenship. assist
ant superintendent of silk mill.
thirty-eight years old.
Nine of the iurymen are farmers.
and all have declared themselves as
not opposed to capital punishment.
Beattie conferred earnestly with his
lawyers and studied in;ently the faces
in the full panel of sixteen men be-
fore the deiense decided on its elimin.
ations. Then, after moment OF
whispered conversation with II. NJ.
Smith. Jr.. his chief counsel. the pris-
oner nodded his head and the clerk
announced that the names of four
farmers selected on Monday were
dropped from the list.
In charging the jurors. who will be
kept during the trial at an old tav.
ern near the courthouse. Judge Walter
A. Watson simply set forth the law OF
Virginia as applicable to homicide. AS
the indictment covers all degrees
from the first degree to involuntary
manslaughter. he explained that the
defendant might be found guilty &C.
cordingly.
''If you find him guilty of murder in
the first degree" said the court. you
shall say so and nothing more. In
which event the punishment shall be
death. but II you find him guilty Of
murder In the second degree you shall
say so. and shall fix his punishment
by confinement In the penitentiary at
not less than FIVE no more than eigh-
teen years"
After citing the penalty for lesser
degrees of manslaughter. the court
concluded with the words that IF you
find the prisoner not guilty of any OF
the offenses charged you shall say so
and no more"
At the opening of the trial on Mon.
day Beattie pleaded mot guilty" to
the indictment charging him with the
murder Of his young wife.
Thomas Owen. an uncle OF Mrs.
Beattie. TO whose home Henry
brought the body with a tale of a
bearded highwayman firing into his
automobile from the roadway. was the
first witness called for the common