The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-23
|RICKNER CASE TO REACH JURY
 EARLY FRIDAY Arguments Begun Follow ing Completion Of Re
 buttal Testimony STATE COMBATS
 INSANITY PLEA Letters Reveal Officers Friendship For An
 other Woman
(Anniston Ruraanl

ANNISTON, Ala, May 22.--- Arguments were begun in the case of Mrs. Evelyn Sue Rickner, pretty young widow, charged with staying her husband, Lieut.. James c. Rick ner at Camp Mcclellan last June, Thursday afternoon at o'clock, following the completion of the rebuttal testimony offered by the government.
 According to court officials, the arguments will be completed within an hour and a half Friday morning and the case will go to the jury be- fore noon. Judge Henry D. Clay ton, who is presiding over the case, has stated that his charge to the jury will not require more than 8 few minutes.
 Mrs. Thomas RicIner,. mother of the slain officer, was placed on the stand by the government in rebuttal and testified that Mrs. Rickner had stayed at her home for several weeks following Lieutenant Rick ner's transfer to Germany and that she did not insinuate to her, daugh- ter-in-law that she cared for her to leave because the officer was I slow in paying the $50 per month charged for the board.
 Captain Testifies
 The government also examined wit nesses in rebuttal to the testimony of. fered by the defense that Mrs. Rick. ener was suffering from temporary in, Ea1lit .s A,5i ss. .sl !, .!s5 v, x
 Captain H. T. White. of the United l Statt arEax sktfied thdt he had seen i Mrs. Hicfner tFo or iree times eaci day. she had rein8insd at tho eannr and that she had appeaFed perfectly rational to him at all timG
 Captain White testified that he wal standing near the wall of his room al the time Rickner was killed. He had heard footsteps but heard no taking he testified. When asked how faI away from Rickner he was at the timt of the shooting, Captain White re. piled that although separated by a thin beaver board wall, the distance would not exceed six feet, and had there been any talking between Rickner and his wife he would have heard 1t.
 Captain Charles F. Craig was re. called by the government and asked fl he had observed any indications of in. sanity in Mrs. Rickner's demeanor dur ing the time she was at Camp Me Clellan. Captain Craig stated that she seemed normal and that he had seen her once or twice daily for three weeks and she did not give the impression that she was suffering any from grave trouble.
 Lieutenant L. T, Earth stated that Mrs. Rickner had appeared to be in a normal state of mind every time he had seen her at the camp.
 Arguments Limited
 This testimony was considered dam. aging to the plea of insanity entered by Mrs. Riekner's attorneys, and creat- ed a surprise when it was introduced. Before the arguments began Judge Clayton set limit of two hours to each side. Jim c. Smith, assistant United States district attorney began the arguments. He made an appeal for conviction on the charge of murder, but did not ask for capitol punishment.
 The plea of insanity is very far fetched" Smith told the jury. You know cray woman hasn't sense enough to load gun carefully and to conceal it artfuliy about her person, A crazy person would not have thought about hiding the weapon. She rennem- bers the smallest details leading up to the killing from away back to her in- fancy and from the moment of her ar rest to the present. She is fully aware of every incident but those few sec onds that elapse when she met RickneT r. s,, ks11 .e fNaaAas,4 TUhfkato room, and when she was seen leaving the building after a gun explosion, she seems to have suffered some mental de single thing"
 Attorney Smith ended with a state ment about the effect the freeing ot such a woman as he pictured Mrs. Rickner to be would have upon other similar murder cases.% He character ized the case as "pre-meditated, cold blooded murder" x
 Neil F. Sterne, one of the attorneys for the defense, asked Judge Clayton to allow him to divide his argument into two parts of 30 minutes each. one to be delivered Thursday afternoon and the other part Friday morning. Judge Clayton consented to this.
 Shooting Not Denied
 Sterne plead that his client be freed because of the condition of her mind at the time the shooting is alleged to have taken place. He did not deny the shooting, but asked the jury to con slider the many facts that had been brought out that showed sufficient strength to have overbalanced the young war brides mind.
 "Gentlemen of the jury, do you be. lieve that this beautiful young woman
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