Year: 1859

Defence Of SickleS.
The Court opened at ten and quarter
o'clock. ...-.-


After some delay the prisoner was brought
into court and placed in the DOCK where he
was engaged for some time in conference
with Messrs. Brady, Stanton and Rcverdy
johnson.


The Jurors were called and answered to
| their names.


Mr.. Graham proceeded to address the jury
amid the solemn silence and attention Of the
| whole court. ....


Mr. Graham, after an eloquent preface,
said had Mr.. Key observed the solemn pre-
| cept, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy" he might at this moment have form
ed one of the living. The injured husband
rushes on him in the moment Of his guilt,
and under the influence of frenzy executes
on him judgment which was as just as it
was summary. The issue which you are to
decide is whether this act renders its author
amenable to the laws Of the land. In the
decision Of that issue, gentlemen Of the
| jury, you have deep and solemn interest
you are here to fix the price of the marriage
bed; you are here to say in what estimation
that sacred couch is held by an honest, in
telligent American jury.


You may feel pity in reviewing this oc-
currence, for the life that has been taken
you may regret the necessity which con-
strained that event, but while you pity the
dead, remember also that you should extend
commisseration to the living. That life,
taken away as it was, may prove to be your
and my gain; you know not how soon the
wife or daughter of some one of you would
have been-in fact you know not but she
had been marked by the same eyes that des-
troyed the marriage relations of this defend
ant. You know not how soon The gardens
of loveliness over which you now preside,
had that life been spared, would have
been called upon to supply their flower,
to satisfy the insatiate appetite Of the de-
| ceased.


An interference with the marriage rela-
tons must strike every rejecting mind as
the greatest wrong that can be committed
on human being. 1t has been well said
that atfliction, shame, poverty, and captiv-
| ity are all preferable; and do not know
that can express the sentiment more ally
than in selecting the lines which the great
dramatist has placed in the mouth of the
Moor, the supposed discoverer of the in
constancy of his Desdemona. You are
here to decide whether the defender Of the
marriage bed is murderer; whether he is
to be put on the same footing with the first
murderer, and is to be presented in his moral
and legal aspects with the same hues Of ag-
grayation about him.


Mr.. Graham reviewed the Opening speech
of the District Attorney, in which he spoke
of "Sickles going out to a carnival of blood
of his being a walking magazine-and of
his standing over his bleeding and dying
victim with his pistol in his hand" The
arms that the prisoner had were not so dan
gcrous to the community, as were the opera
glass and the handkerchief that the deceas.
ed carried for the purpose of destroying the
domestic peace and honor Of the prisoner.
The world was benefited by the death of
such man as Philip Barton Key.


During this part of the speech the father
of Mr.. Sickles wept. Many others We're
moved to tears.


Mr.. Graham proceeded to cite various le-
gal authorities in regard to the various de-
grees in the crimes of murder and man
slaughter.


1t was for the jury to inquire whether the
prisoner, ut the time he shot the deceased,
was moved by sudden and violent passion,
which he could not control. If this should
be proved to their satisfaction, he was not
accountable to the law for the deed he had
done. They should inquire and decide from
the testimony to be brought before them,
whether the prisoners mind was not tempo
rarily disordered by the appalling destruc-
ton of his wife's virtue. The prisoner was
not guilty of crime, because when he slew
the deceased he was then defending his
household and vindicating an infamous
wrong. In causing the death of one man,
he was probably the means Of preventing
the death of many who might be tempted
to commit the same crime that the de-
ceased had if this offense was to 60 unpun-
ished.


When society had not protected man
from injury by proper laws, it was the duty
of each member of society to protect him
self; he should protect himself as much
against an adulterer as burglar. Human
laws in all civilized countries allow man to
kill burglar whom he may discover breaking
into his house at night. The divine law
sanctions the killing of the burglar, and the
same authority must sanction the redress of
the far greater injury done by the adulterer





law on the subject, citing the statue of Ed
ward l, which makes adultery deadly sin;
he also cited the laws of Massachusetts,,
Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the only
States where adultery is legally punishable.


He contended that Key was trespasser
on the home of Mr.. Sickles, and that Sickles
had perfect right to punish him as he
would have right to punish him for any
1n%k h, hot r.,
sci for the prosecution should prove that
there was malice in the killing, and not
leave it to be implied-if they imply it they
will fail to make out their case, and the de-
fense need not 60 further. If malice is not
proven, the jury could acquit the prisoner
on the evidence thus far adduced. A jury
Of twelve Indian savages would indignant
ly repel the idea of conviction, from testi-
mony thus far presented. The prosecu-
ton must prove that there was malice, and
the jury can not build verdict of guilty
on the presumption Of a thing which does
not exist


1t is tragic thing to shed bloqd, but it is
not always tragedy to shed the blood Of an
adulterer, as it had been proved by the evil
dence for the prosecution that Key had de-
filed the bed Of the prisoner at the bar
The latter had admitted that he was so
wronged, and he had ample proof of it,
The defense might then rest the ase and
demand the ac4uittal of the prisoner, on
the ground of having proved the adulter-
GUS intercourse but they would not stop
here; they intend to present to the jury
facts of adulterous proceedings of the de-
ceased, with all their revolving details, prov
ing that at the very time that Key was en-
gagged in this thing he was treated as fami-
liar friend Of the prisoner at the bar.


Mr.. GIaham took up the Bible, commenc-