Salt Lake Telegram | 1922-10-26 | Page 11 | Court Puts Faith in Declaration of Man on Death Bed

Court Puts Faith In Declaration of Man on Death Bed BOISR, Idaho, Oct. M. Th -lupreme court departed from lta usual procedure proced-ure yesterday and exploited the thought, uppermost In the mind of a man who fs about to d!4, when It affirmed af-firmed the derision of tha lower court tn tha ease against Jej-rv Williams, convicted of voluntary manslaughter. I Tha decision of tha cae for the most ' j part binned on the dylna dclaratlon ' I of Alfred Snssell, m hom It la alleged I Wlllinms shot and mortally wounded ; October I, near Iocatllo. Saisell dlenl a few daya later. - A Jury In the lower court found Williams Will-iams fuTlty snd ha waa aentenretj to erva from two to ten yeara in the, tat prison. The supreme court yea- j terday affirmed this order, and a!l thai members concurred In tha derision, j which was written by Chief Justlea John C. Rice." I Tha defense objected to tha admit-' tanre of the dying; declaration of Sass- ell, as told t) the doctor who attended him, lecausi In It Hasseli la alleged to have told how the shooting occurred and this sti'ry was d.fferent from that told by Williams, who claimed that he ishot In aelf-defense. The supreme court, however, decided j that the declaration wna properly al- Imitted In evidence, and upheld this ' stand by citing many similar Instances, . Another point brought nut by the, ( defense waji that Sassell was not a re-j re-j Iigfoua man. and did not believe tn I future rewards and pun i aliments, and I for this reason alleged that his declaration declara-tion was not a true statement of the facts. The court derided the declaration declara-tion could be admitted without the pre-bnilnary pre-bnilnary proof that,, the declarant be-! Iteved In a future state of rewards and ' punishment; j The court places it self on record as ; putting more faith In the truthfulness ! of a declaration of a person about to Idle than in any other k:mt of testimony.