Show BELIEVES DURRANT INNOCENT judge mcerlain ol of arkansas makes public S statement tat ement little rock ark dec 10 judge judae E R M merriam of this city who once defended joseph F Bl anther when anther Blant Bl ber under the name of forbes was charged with a crime in this city publicly reiterates his belief that blancher Bl anther and not theodore durrant murdered blanch lamont lament and minnie williams he be declares that the execution of durrant will be a judicial murder be insists that there can be no question but that tile the confession produced in texas is in the handwriting of Bl anther and he declares that this confession must be accepted as true as against tile the merely circumstantial evidence which fixes the crime on D durrant ur ran t the fact that Bl anther was seen in atlanta G ga a between april 12 and april 15 ISO 1895 merriam iam puts aside lie he argues that Bl li lanther anther could have left atlanta on april 4 and been in sad francisco iu in time to murder the two girls on the night of april 1 13 1 or possibly the night before and returned at once to atlanta |