The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-07-13

the stand who said anything favor
able to the prisoners, they were I'M
mediately sent to jail"
Discussing the testimony, Mr..
Laird precated the states attempt
to insinuate that L. c. Carr and G.
D. Adams had been offered bride
on the opening day of court to swear
to a false alibi. But even if Will
Blackwell had tried to bride them,
said Mr.. Laird, is not a man justified
in trying to save his life by any
means?
Without the testimony of Mrs.
Atwell, declared Mr.. Laird, the states
case would fall to the ground. "Do
you know that she is telling the truth
! now, and was lying then? Do you
know she was telling the truth then
and is lying now? II you don't know
she was telling you must give the
prisoners the benefit of the doubt and
| let them GO"
| He referred to Mrs. Wilbur
Mason's testimony to the effect that
= Mrs. Eliza Atwell had told her on the
day of the trial that she, Mrs. At
well, knew the Blackwell brothers
were innocent, and asked, Has Mrs.
! Mason been impeached? Has she
been refuted?
Referring to the testimony of Bud
Adams and Levy Dollar that Will
Blackwell had told them that he wit
messed the payment of a thousand dol
lars in cash to Bud Davis. Mr.. Laird
| stressed the point that the testimony
of the state itself proved that it was
a hundred dollars and the transaction
took place over a year before the
crime, time in which the modest sum
might well be expected to be spent,
and that Will Blackwell could not
have known anything about the trans
action and therefore could not have
told the witnesses who confessed tc
previous perjury
He also adverted to the open way
in which Will Blackwell was said tC
be seeking accomplices for a crime
would a man who mediated a deed OF
this character do this?
Without impugning the good faitf
of Blany Brooks and his father
Mr.. Laird suggested that they haC
nothing whatever to justify their
suspicious of Will Blackwell when h
visited their house near Camp Walto1
year before the crime, and that they
were unduly apprehensive.
Sophronia Holmes had testified
said Mr.. Laird, that one of the men
was taller than the other, that they
had neither guns nor coats; but the
two Blackwells were of the same
height, guns had been used, and the
state had made much of a coat with
a sooty deposit on the collar. /
Sophronia Holmes was to be believed
in one part of her testimony, VIII.
should she be discredited in anothe
part.
Again, if it was too dark for Har
rison Davis to say-as he had testi
fied-if one of the men wore Whit
hat, or a black and if the other wor
hat or a cap, how could he identlf!
them now, even tentatively, as vii
and Bob Blackwell, particularly /
their faces had been smutted will
cork
And was it reasonable to thinl
that the lookout would shoot charg'
of buckshot into the door and run tn
risk of killing his own pals, argued
Mr.. Laird.
Mr.. Laird concluded with the state
ment that the 45 calibre steel JACKIE
ball had never been fired from
shell, because he said there were n
powder burns and he further sal
that if it had been fired its fore
= would have not have been expende
: after hitting the gun and foo
! g1ancing blows and then sitting dow
in a chair. Such bullets Mr.. Lair
said, could penetrate a 14-inch pin
tree. The ball was a "plant" sal
l Mr.. Laird which proved that tn
whole business was a frame up, I
link the crime to Will Blackwell ,wh
was said to have such a pistol
Had Will and Bob Blackwell bee