Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1911-10-21

Attorney Shaw, counsel for the de-
 fense, urged that the law required the proof to show that man acted after deliberation and reconciliation in taking the life of his fellowman, before he could be convicted of mur- der in the first degree; that the proof in this case all tended to show un-
 pleasant domestic relations on the part of defendant and deceased, wholly brought about by her, and that her conduct in general for many months had been such as to almost distract the defendant, and that the climax was reached on the morning of the tragedy when she attempted to pull from his arms and take away their little boy, who consistently clung to his fathers neck and begged him not to let him be carried away He argued that when the mother at together with other circumstances in the lives of the two up to that time, the defendant became so enraged and angered that he lost all reason and control of himself and was unable in that condition and frame of mind to premeditatedly deliberate on any course he was to pursue, as requir- ed by law, in order to make it capi- tai offense for anything that he might do in that condition. MT. Shaw urg ed that the best people where defen dant had always lived showed him to have always borne a good reputa tion for peace and quietude, and if that be true, the jury ought not take the life of this man and hur1 his soul into eternity, because of his first passionate offense
 District Attorney Nixon, in his closing argument, urged upon the jury the necessity of their co-opera- on and absolute assistance to the court and court officials in the en- forcement of the law He said that the executive officers might do their duty by apprehending and incarcerat- ing a man who had committed a crime; that the grand jury might do It's duty and return an indictment, the court might do it's duty by prompt ly setting the case down for trial, fairly directing it's progress and pro- perly submit to them the law govern ing the particular case; that the pro- scouting attorney might do his full duty, but unless the petit Juries of the country were composed of that class of citizenship who would lend their cooperation, justice must at last fall. In closing he said: "Gentlemen of the jury; Should you be touched by the sympathetic appeal made by counsel for the defense or the tears you see streaming down the faces of his good old mother and father and friends, I would ask you to look upon the walls of this Tenn pie of Justice and there view the pic ture painted by the testimony in this case and, when with one eye you be- hold the tears fall. with the other be hold the blood that flowed from the heart of the deceased, the wife of this defendant and the mother Of his children, because of the unprOvoked and murderous assault made upon her by him. ''='
 Mr. Nixon concluded by saying 1t would be ten thousand times over more cowardly to compromise jus tice in this case by writing a verdict of murder in the second degree than it would be to go out and acquit de- fendant.
 The Crime.
 Mrs. Minnie D. Nichols was stabbed to death by her husband when she went to her former home to secur> possession of her three children, un- der an order of the chancery court in which he had applied for a divorce She had gone there in buggy, ac- companied by Mrs. Ada Parnell. They arrived at the Nichols home on the Warren road shortly after 9 o'clock Nichols was on the front porch with the children. Mrs. Nichols alighted from the buggy and entered the yard to get the children, while Mrs. Par nell waited in the rig outside. Nichols and his wife went into an empty house, nearby, where they formerly lived, to get some pictures, which she wanted. The children-two little girls-went into the house and pre- pared to return to the city with their mother. The third, a little boy, years old, remained in his fathers lap on the gallery and did not display any anxiety to accompany the mother. She walked to the porch and beckon- ed the lad to go with her, after the little girls had joined the mother in the yard. As she did so, Nichols left his chair, deposited the child in it, walked down the front steps, grabbed his wife and slashed her twice across the throat. She ran from the yard onto a neighbours porch and fell dead. Nichols escaped into the woods with shotgun, but later returned to the house and was arrested by Constable Babcock, of Niven township, who turned him over to Sheriff Brewster and his deputies.
 Attorney Shaw has given notice