The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1915-02-04
MEN DIVIDED ON
FIRST BALLOT
After Considering Case for Only
a Short Time They Go d.
to Hotel.
HOW THEY STAND UNKNOWN
Believed That Only One Ballot
Was Taken Merely to See If
1t Was Possible to Reach a
Verdict Last Night.
HOW THEY STAND UNKNOWN

The fate of Virgil II. Davis is again
in the hands OF twelve men OF Glynn
county, and before nie ut he may know
whether or not he is to be a free man,
1s to face the gallowa or service OF
life imprisonment II u the general
consensus of opinion that the Jury
this time will agree one way or the
other Many of those who have close
ly followed the case, have listened to
the evidence, etc, seem TO think it
will either be an acquittal " another
mistrial
The case was given to tn jury last
night at 1925 o'clock, aftc" the at
torneys had spent several hOcrs in ar
guments When Judge ii ihsmith
called the court to order last light at
7;l6 the courtroom was simply lacked
with people, among those pres. II be-
ing large number of ladies'. A. st
the entire audience remained until t.iA
judge delivered his charge and the
jury went into their room to consider
the case.
Shortly after the jury retired to
thti lOoil tuc ultiuUtIS cuIIt'u upon
the sheriff for some scrap paper, in
dicating that they intended to take q
written ballot. This, was done prob
ably to see just how the twelve men
were divided. Judge Highsmith stated
to the sheriff that he would be at the
Oglethorpe and, if a verdict was
reached by II o'clock that he would
return to the courthouse and receive
1t. The jury remained in their rooEl,
however, for less than an hour, when
they were taken to a hotel and retired
for the night. 1t seems that, after
taking one ballot and discussing the
case for few minutes, it was realized
that it would be Impossible to arrive
at an immediate verdict, therefore
the members decided to retire and re-
sumo the consideration of the case
this morning
Davis Makes Statement.
The defense closed its case shortly
before 3 O'Clock yesterday afternoon
when the defendant made his state
ment to the jury. The statement diff
fered very little from those he made
at the previous trials. He stated that
he was absolutely innocent. that he
knew nothing about the murder of his
wife until her body was found almost
two weeks after she had been killed
He stated that on the night the muir
der was committed he was in his
camp and called attention to the eyi-
dence introduced to this effect. He
said that, while he and his wife were
separated, he held no hard feelings
against her. and denied that he had
abused her and threatened her life as
a number of witnesses had testified.
Following the statement of the de-
fendant, the state offered in rebuttal
some four or five witnesses. Most
OF these were used to offset the evi-
dence of number of witnesses intro
duced by the defense to the effect that
fQavis was absolutely in his camp, as
Listing loading a car of lumber when
the murder was supposed to have
been committed
Some Strong Arguments.
The state here closed it's case and
Judge Hghsmith told the attorneys to
proceed with their arguments. Solic-
itor Thomas opened with a brief ad-
dress to the jury and was followed
by Judge A. d. Gale, of counsel for
the defense. Judge Gale spoke for
an hour and half. going carefully
over practically all of the evidence.
His appeal to the jury was strong and
forceful; he pointed out that the state
had failed absolutely in connecting
Davis with the case in any way; that
there had not been a single witness
introduced to show that a conspiracy
was formed between the two brothers,
and he took up the testimony of wit
ness after witness, and asked the jury
if they could see where Virgil Davis
was in any way connected with the
cfime.
Judge Gale was followed by Judge
D. w Krauss. leading counsel for the
defense. Judge Kreuss spent the first
hours in reading number of supreme
court decisions In similar cases, show