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Show LINKER CLEARED 1 in CASE Jury Returns Verdict of Not Guilty of Slaying Joseph Briggs. A verdict of not guilty was returned last night by the jury .in the case of Thomas J. Linker, tried on a charge of murder in the first degree for the alleged killing of Joseph Brtgrrs, a Fairview farmer, on the early morning of January 12. Briggs was fatally shot while resisting re-sisting highwaymen on West Second South street. The jury deliberated about one and a half hours. In instructing the jury, Judge Harold M. Stephens of the Third district court explained that the verdict must, because of the nature of the evidence, be either one of :irst-degree murder or acquittal. The court explained that the latitude allowed the jury m the circumstances was circumscribed to permit of no greater leniency, in case of guilt, than a recommendation recom-mendation ofmerey. Brrs being killed by someone who was trying to rob him the guilty person per-son must be guilty of murder in the first degree, the court explained, since killing in the course of committing a felony constitutes the highest degree of murder, and the statute does not permit finding the person guilty of a less degree. de-gree. Jointlv with Linker. Mrs. Maud Linker, his wife, and William H. Brooks, a negro, ne-gro, were charged with the murder in the information. Both appeared as witnesses for the defendant, who demanded, and was a ccord ed . a e pa ra e trial. Both denied any knowledge of the killing, except ex-cept through subsequent report, and of the defendant's, connection with it in any way. The theory of the state was that Briggs had been to the Macedonia rooming house, of which Mrs. Linker was landlady, land-lady, shortly before lie was attacked, and there displayed a roll of bills, with the result that Linker and. Brooks were told of the money by Mrs. Linker. |