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Show THE CJLLETT CASE. Tho trial of 8ylv;inu Collctt on the chfir&o of piirticiiAtii.in in tho murder of tho "Aiken p:uty," twcuty-one years iyo, litis hyon condoled aiid tho .-icctid acquitted. The rceult of tiic trial is not, n disappointment, and yet it ia. So mucY huB been said during tn P,lst 'ew yera nhout tbia cane, ami ut Collstt't cnimectiun iviih it, mid civnlly t,o much lma hfien hioUid and euu openly talked of what tho prooL-i uiiun would he ahle to prove, tbut not ft few people were disposed to hehevo the defendant guilty ol ihe terrible crime with which hia name 1ms been bo closely associated. associ-ated. To thcdo people the verdict will bo a didappointment; but to the general public who tiro not disposed to accept aa true, street rumor, and who place no confidence in tho utoi ieB of Gdndational newapapera, the acquittal acquit-tal in nothing more than they expected. ex-pected. To all who havo watcbetl the trial, and noted tho testimony, tho Gliding ot tho jury cornea aa a niattor of uuur.ni. InteHiint jurors nniild havo i turned no otber verdict without doin; violence to their oaths as jurymen. Whatever tho prjceculion c m.iy havo expected lo prove when it began the trial (and according to the r declarat oua of counsel in the open ' ingatuttment, thii was much,) the effort to make out a case ngain&t the accueed s very generally regarded aa on utter failure. Now that the trial IB over and the public knows all that the pros -utiD officer h presumed to have luiuwn at the beginning.it seems a little eurpriaiog th it be should have gone into court expecting to obtain a verdict. And right here it iB proper to ay that while we may all commend the district attorney's zeal us a proiecutor, faith in hia judgment has bceu somewhat Bhakeu. "We fear his ol jnct whs not so much the conviction of the dtfecdant aa the niakinp up of 'a case for purposes Other than legitimate, or in pursuance of the Bimpte ends of justice. This conclusion forces ilsi-lt upon the mind atit.t a careful perusal ol the testimony on the part of the prosecution. prosecu-tion. Admitting that nil the pec- ple'B witnessed were trustworthy, reliable re-liable persons, their tt-elimony ousts only a shadow upon Collelt. There ia only one portion that tends to con- ucct him with the crime, and that is his allegid confessions or "boast" that he bad taken part in the minder. min-der. There is nothing els3 in the testimony nf the acore of witnesses that a jury would dare any saddled guilt upon the accused. As to the "confess ens," Jude Emeraou, in hia charge lo the jury, clearly stated what weight the law contemplated should bf atiactttd to them, "If you find thaL tiiev fthe toufeoeions and admiisiona of tho' defendant) were made as detailed by wifneee-es on the ; Stand, yet ti:ii aluuo would not be eutlicieut to warrant a conviction. There rmift be some proat outside ol this, independent ot the confessions of the hedy of the crime the corpus dilkti." But when we take inU coo-si coo-si ierati -.a t ie charactar of tbe witnesses wit-nesses l-r the prosecution, the general tone of their evidence and tjeir object in goii g tfpon the atind, whatever of a shadow in the nature of circumstances circumstan-ces their testimony rray have cast upou tae defendant, is at once dispelled. dis-pelled. It ia perhaps, not worth while to say onytbingof thecharacter of the witnesses for the prrsecution. Most oi them are already too well known in the community, and one at least the only one by whom it was attempted to establish tho main offense while be did not connect the defendant with the murder, gave evideLce which, without any great strain upou their oaths, a jury could construe as convicting the witness himself of active participation in the crime. j On the other side, the case for the defense was not strong, though stronger than that of the prosecution required it to be. The accused evidently rested hia chances for acquittal upon the weakness of the prcsscutioa, rather than upon his own etrt'Cth, and this estimate, all must admit, was correct. |