The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-11-15
NIS1RIAL FOR CHILDERS
,,-pv WAS OUT 20 HOURS, AND is
SAID TO HAVE STOOD 8 TO
g. FOR CONVICTION.
pOBTFRT KENNEDY RELEASED

pn+ He May BE Rearrested, as Chill
doris Friends Insist That Charge
Do Pressed. Bail Will Be Asked
For Prisoner and Change of Venue
at Next Trial.
1EFSBURG, Ga.-After being out
.or nearly twenty hours the jury in
.bo ease of Maud S. Childers, charg-
al with the murder of his wife by
nntting strychnine in a bottle of
madeline she was taking, late Fri
dow afternoon announced to Judge
Tjr1eiohn that it was impossible for
t5Am to agree, and were discharged.
The Jury had been out since nine
o'clock Thursday night. The an
norncement that the jury had reach
no no verdict occasioned no surprise.
Most of the people who had followed
the course of the now celebrated case
nrodicted a mistrial after it was
learned that the jury had been lock-
a cd ND Thursday night without arriv-
ing at a decision.
There are various reports as to
how the jury stood. One considered
& authentic is that eight of the twelve
held out for conviction and that four
4 insisted upon acquitting the defend
ant 1t was reported, too, that the
lry Il rTS.I
inc the maximum punishment for the
misoner and six contending for his
release. The evidence at the trial
was the same as that at che commit
ment trials of Childers and Robert
Kennedy, both of whom were bound
i OYER to answer for the crime.
Kennedy Is Released.
An interesting fea- ure of the case,
q which has occupied the attention of
4 the people of this section as perhaps
no other criminal hearing ever has,
/ was the release of Robert Kennedy,
who was held for two months on a
charge Of numbering Mrs. Childers.
After the jury was discharged SoIic-
! itor Williams moved that Kennedy
be released from custody on the
ground that the evidence against him
was not sufficient to justify his furth-
er Incarceration. Kennedy, pale with
the prison pallor on his face, was
congratulated by hundreds of friends
when he left the court house.
May Be Rearrested.
Kennedy's time of liberty may be
brief, as it is understood that Chill
ders side of the case will insist upon
his rearrest on a charge of murder
ing Mrs. Childers and that they will
not rest until he is brought to trial
On the accusation.
Kennedy, it will be remembered,
was, it is claimed, in love with Mrs.
Chliders at the time she welded Mr..
ChilderS 1t is charged that after he
was arrested and accused of admin
i8terng the poison which caused her
death he remarked that he loved her
too dearly to allow her to live with
another man.
In the Childer8 trial he testified
that he stood in the door of Mrs.
ChlLders room the morning she took
the fatal dose Of medicine, but de-
elared that he had no idea that she
was taking poison.
Motive Not Shown.
Just why either of the men should
be accused of the murder was not
made plain at the trial. Attorneys
lot ChIlders contCnded that the case
mad utterly failed to show any mo-
1--WE for the crime. 1t was limited
Jnat the prisoner killed his wife to
secure sum of money for which she
was insured, but the state did not in
SYST upon this theory, and only one
witness for the prosecution made
any reference to it.
30 far as can now be ascertained
Ine only motive ascrihed to Kennedy
tor the murder is that he couldn' t
oeaT to have the woman he loved liv-
Ing with another man.
Case a Puzzling One.
The case is one of the most puz-
zHng in the criminal annals of the
state Mrs. Childers, a young wo-
NAN OF good family and irreproacha-
Olo character, took a dose Of salhe-
Pauca on the afternoon of June 10.
shortly afterwards she was seized
WIN commissions and died An ex-
animation of the contents of her
stomach showed the presence of
srychnine and an analysis of the
medicine revealed a quantity of the
same drug.
ue trial. purchased a bottle of
@DEychnine a short time before his
vines dean. He readily admitted
making the purchase, averring that
ne bought the poison to kill a dog
III 4aJ mad annoyed him and his wife.
IT. I7 SAFE. however qt ne request OF
MS Wife he refra ed from using the
poIsoG to do away with the canine,
'aa buried it in the yard of the