Evening star., 1948-05-21
Holmes 10 Get
Death Sentence
Next Week
Jury Recommends
Electric Chair for
Convicted Rupist

| sentence OF death In the electric
chair for raping and beating a g.
year-old girl will be pronounced on
Theodore M. Holmes in District
Court next week, following convic-
ton Of the young colored laborer
late yesterday before jury which
recommended the extreme penalty.
The jury's verdict, as reported by
the foreman, Earl Harrison, jr., COL
ored. a mail carrier, makes the
death sentence mandatory. The
jurors deliberated for only 40 min
utes. Trial Justice Edward M. Cur
ran is expected to impose sentence
next Friday.
The jury included four colored
members and was made up of four
women and eight men who had been
instructed by Judge Curran they
could bring in verdict of guilty
with a recommendation of death,
guilty of rape, Of assault with intent
to rape, of simple assault or acquit-
tai.
Had the jury found Holmes guilty
OF rape and refrained from recon-
mending death. the maximum pun
ishment under the District Code
would have been 80 years in prison.
Closing Argument.
Assistant United States Attorney
John C. Conliff, jr., charged in his
closing argument that the assault
on the little girl in wooded ravine
behind her home in the $500 block
of Morris Place NE. on the evening
of March 18 was one of the most
brutal on record here.
After Mr.. Harrison. who lives at
1926 Irving street NE, delivered
the jury's verdict, Defense Counsel
Wesley S. Williams, colored. asked
the courts permission to withdraw
from the case. He and Attorney
Maurice R. Weeks, colored, had
been appointed by the court to de-
fend Holmes. The Judge took Will
liams' request under advisement.
Holmes, a chunky, dark-skinned
youth of 20, who has been working
as a part-time helper on a truck
since he came here a year ago,
is a former convict who served 18
months in North Carolina for the
murder of a woman, according to
testimony at his trial. He lived in
the 1700 block of Seventh street NV.
Holmes is an illiterate. described
by Government psychiatrists in
testimony yesterday as ''high-
grade moron" or a "dull normal"
although of sound mind and capa-
BILE of knowing the difference be-
tween right and wrong.
Remembered Nothing.
The accused man told the jury
he could remember nothing after he
was knocked from an ash truck
by a fellow worker on the evening
of the crime. He declared he "woke-
up the next day while being ques-
toned at headquarters.
This was reversal OF previous
admissions he had made to police,
to a relative of his who had been
summoned to headquarters and to
the two psychiatrists, it was testi-
fed. In the latter talks Holmes
was quoted as having gone into de-
tail of how he carried the girl to
the woods. stripped, ravished and
beat her before he left her in the
ravine.
Mr.. Confiff charged that Holmes
tried to blind the child with his
thumbs SC that she could not iden-
tify him later.
After beating and kicking his vic
tim and breaking her leg in two
places, the prosecutor told the jury,
Holmes believed the child was dead
and carried her to a spot beside the
fence of the National Arboretl!m
where he attempted to cover he,
with leaves.
The child was found unconscious
several hours later by members of
the family, who had been searching
the vicinity. She still walks on
crutches and one foot remains par
TALLY paralyzed, according to the
r,orthor'c testimony