Evening star., 1926-12-03

SUMMING UP IN MURDER TRIAL
DECLARED JUST LIKE A PLAY
Elements of Comedy and Tragedy Both
Injected by Defense, and Some Are
Called In Bad Taste

ton, but a battling one. They listened
o a not very opposite quotation from
Felix Holt, lengthy paraphrase OF
st. Paul and an even lengthier quo
tation from Hamlet" with express
sions Of mild surprise, though It is
as some of the rest Of us by the sud
den casting of Mrs. Hail in the role
Of Ophelia.
We think, too, that the savage at
tack on Mrs. Gibson's illness as the
atrical humbug'' was bad taste and
bad Judgment. It would be difficult TO
convince any human who heard her In
court that day that they were not
listening to an i'll woman.
Defense Has Strong Case.
1t is because we feel that the coun.
sci for the defense has one of the
strongest cases in its hands that was
ever presented to a Jury that we de-
plore some Of the methods that they
have used in presenting it. They have
no need of vituperation, of cheap
jokes, Of passionate appeals to local
patriotism and local prejudice, of gilt.
tering generalities and malicious slurs.
II the case had been closed with
out one word from either defense.
prosecution or judge, we believe that
the verdict pronounced by the jury
would just as inevitably be mot
guilty" We believe that it would be
that same verdict of mot guilty
whether the jury were foreign or do
mestic, hostile or friendly-12 men
Brunswick. We believe that it would
be mot guilty" if Daniel Webster
had conducted the prosecution and a
nice bright boy from the Near East
kindergarten had conducted the de.
fense.
And we believe this because we think
that there Is no case whatever against
these two men and this woman.
There was an excellent prima facie
case for an indictment-a reputed
fingerprint on card supposed to be
propped at the murdered mans heel;
shaken alibis, a supposed eyewitness,
tales Of Mrs. Halls jealousy; tales of
bribery and corruption. These things,
one by one, have crumbled to pieces
in the prosecutors clever fingers
not because they have not been deftly
handled, but because they were un-
sound and rotten before he touched
them.
StranSo career OF SdTU.
The card has had too strange and
checkered a career to earn our es-
teem--it is quite possible that 1t has
black smudges on it--darker than
charcoal or Iampblack. 1t is an object
for curiosity, not for respectful con.
sideration. it is highly doubtful
whether it was the card at the rec.
tors heel-it is even doubtful whether
there was a card at his heel at all.
The shaken alibis have suffered an
other convulsion and are all back In
place again, under oath, with three
or four new and unshakable ones
thrown in for good measure. The eye
witness tale has so many serious
variations, such unstable identifica-
tions, that we are driven to believe
that it is either a hallucination, fab
rication or an amplification of fact
that includes both factors. The tales
of Mrs. Halls jealousy seem literally
non.existent. The tales of bribery
and corruption dwindle down to a jail
birds account of bribery from a dead
man, and a tale by a lady with wild
light in her eye Of q total stranger
her steps, Offering to pay
off the mortgages on the old home.
listening patiently to her virtuous and
his name before he left in case she
ever wanted to reach him to throw
him in Jail for making such PROPOSE
tions, presumably.
Eloquent Appeal by Case.
There may be those in this court.
room who still believe that Frances
Hall. William Stevens and Henry Ste
vens are guilty of this murder-but If
there Is one person left in the world
who holds that their guilt has been
proved, we believe that it Is because
that person has not made even an at
tempt to follow the evidence.
Senator Case made an able and
eloquent appeal. Our chief indict-
ments against him are that he is
a politician before he is a lawyer
and that he has no middle register
to his voice. Like the happiness
boys Of radio fame he addressed us
voice. The low voice we couldn't
hear and the high voice hurt our
eardrums and, we trust, his tonsils.
What we could hear was good. He
wears, prominently displayed, Phi
Beta Kappa key--and he amply
justified It's acquisition. At his con-
Henry Stevens wept, MEM
bers of the jury wept, Senator Case
wept.
But one there was who did not
weep. A gray-haired woman. who
had no tears left or pity for herself
or her fate-who sat quietly staring
at gray gloves with gray eyes,
thinking, perhaps, Of something that
the learned and eloquent counsel
seemed so often to have forgotten
of man lying with a bullet through
his head under a crabapple tree, with
a girls brown head on his arm, a
girl with three bullets through her
head and cut throat-a lucky,
lucky girl, dead and beloved.