Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1911-08-26
Jury IS COMPLETE;
BEATT|E TRIAL ON
Nine of Twelve Jurymen Who VIII
Decide the Fate of Alleged Wife
Slayer Arc Farmers.

Chesterfield Courthouse, Va. Aug.
24.-.The jury which will decide
whether Henry Clay Beattie, Jr., of
Richmond, shah go to the electric
chair, convicted OF wife murder, was
completed in battered old Chester
field courthouse.
The battle Tor 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 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
y 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. 2-E. l.. Wilson, farmer, thirty
eight years old.
No. "A. L. Fetteroff, contractor,
thirtyfour years old.
No. 4-Irving L. Bass, Jr., farmer,
thirty years old.
No. " W. Fuqua, farmer, twen-
ty-seyen years old.
No. CIV. l.. Burgess, farmer, fifty
two years old
No. TN. E. Purdie, farmer, TWEEN
ty-sevon years old.
No. S-M c. Robinson, farmer,
fcrty-four years old
No. 3--Thomas A. Hancock, farm
GO, thirty-sevon years old.
No. l0-Lewis Robertson, farmer,
forty-four years old
No. li-W. p. Rocks, farmer, forty
eight years old.
No. I'm. e. Blankenship, assist
ant superintendent of silk mill,
thirty-eight years old
Nine of the jurymen are farmers,
and all have declared themselves as
mot opposed to capital punishment.
5eattie Aids In Selection.
Beattie conferred earnestly with his
lawyers and studied intently the faces
In The full panel of sixteen men be-
fore the defense decided on it's elimin-
atoms. Then, after a moment of
whispered conversation with H. M.
Smith, Jr., his chief counsel, the pris-
oner nodded his head and the clerk
aunornced that the names of four
farmers selected on Monday were
dropped from the list.
In charging the jurors, who will be
kept dlaing 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 ac-
cordingly.
III you find him guilty of murder in
the first degree" said the court, you
SANaA soy ~ anu HOluluS more, IN
which event the punishment shall be
death, but if you ind 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
lind the prisoner not guilty of any of
the offenses charged you shall say so
and no more
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
hrst witness called for the common
wealth this morning