The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-06-11
long IS SET FREE
JURY TAKES ONLY NINETY SEC.
OKDS TO DO IT.
VERDICT IS APPROVED

| edy, Declaring That it Was th'
Outgrowth Of Political Difference:
of the Times.
A precedent was established il
Aiken County Court history Thurs
Fday when the jury in the Long mur
der case decided that they had abou
enough testimony and were ready tc
acquit Legislator Long without hear
ing any more evidence or any o:
| counsel's arguments in the case; tha
they had already reached their deci
sion and would have returned mo
guilty" verdict wednesday. afternoon
The defence had just rested it:
case and the prosecution was ready tc
place on the stand witnesses in re
buttal, but it was near the dinner
hour and the Court announced re
cess, whereupon the foreman Of the
jury, Jas. R. League, of North Angus.
ia, leaped to his feet, but when he
started to make his statement the
Court stopped him with the an.
nouncement that the State must be
| given its opportunity to present wit.
nesses in rebuttal to the testimony
offered by the defence.
| When the States testimony was
completed after dinner, the foreman
then informed the Court that the
jury had already determined upon
the merits Of the case, and that argu-
ments. by counsel were useless. This
stemmed a promised flow Of oratory.
So Judge Ernest Gary, of Columbia,
presiding, delivered his charge and
! permitted the jury to enter an ante
room and draw in regular form the
acquittal Of Long. They were out
about ninety seconds, when the clerk
of Court, in sonorous tones, read the
| verdict, Hugh Long, indicted for
murder, not guilty"
And tonight Hugh Long is the
happiest man in Aiken County. His
friends and attorneys are jubilant,
too, and his counsel, Messrs. Croft
& Croft and Col Claude E. Sawyer,
who so intelligently and skilfully con-
Quoted the defence for their client,
were the first to congratulate him
and they were followed by throngs OF
people, some of whom were hereto
fore absolutely Indifferent as to Hugh
Long.
With some few natural exceptions,
there is general satisfaction over the
verdict and no one, SO far as known,
has presumed to question its justice.
In the same Court room, where he
will soon be practicing law, if re-
ports be true, Legislator Hugh Long
took the witness stand Thursday
morning at HAS o'clock and told
how and why he killed Pickens N.
Gunter, of Wagner. He remained
on the stand one hour and forty min
utes.
All day Wednesday and Thursday
morning the defence had, by more
than fifty witnesses, been building up
and establishing Longs plea of self
defense, and apparently the testi-
mony could not be shaken, and there
was offered a fitting finale when the
Aiken County legislator took the
stand in his own behalf. and In an
earnest, straightforward manner pre-
sented his story. The prosecutions
efforts to break him down were with
out avail.
When Mr.. Croft began the exami-
nation for the defence he proceeded
to draw from Mr.. Long the story OF
his early life. Long testifying that he
was born and reared in Monroe Coun-
ty, North Carolina. After gradual
ing from the high schools, Long
taught school for several years and
then went to Wake Forest College,
from which he later received his di-
ploma, going back to Monroe and in
to business for himself. Mr.. long
affirmed his personal acquaintance
with the several prominent North
Carolinians who were used Wednes-
day as character witnesses in Longs
behalf. Mr.. Long has three brothers
in the ministry. His father fought
during the four years of the War be-
tween the States.
The witness then proceeded to
Estate that he moved to Wagner in
I19l1, and that shortly thereafter,
| without any solicitation on his part
and virtually without his will, he
was elected mayor of the little town.
In WAGNER he owned and edited a
country weekly newspaper. and in
addition to this had good deal OF
law work.
Then he told now, in the early palt
of last summer, almost innumerable
friends approached him and urged
him to run for the House OF Repre-
| sentatives, and as he expressed it,
''he was in the race before he knew
it,. From that point the witness
told of his alleged political persecu-
ton and how, he charged, Pickens
Gunter and others followed rim from
one meeting place to another; hound
ing him all over the county, he alleg-
led. He enumerated several occasions
when they attended meetings and he
| declared that Gunter and his friends
were at practically every meeting OF
the campaign, with maybe three or
four exceptions.
! He said he remembered distinctly
that the deceased was at the cam
paign meeting at Warrenwille, and
with him were several friends. They
filed into the hall, Long said. and
took their positions in front of him,