Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1914 — WILLIS RELEASED BY KENTLAND JURY [ARTICLE]

WILLIS RELEASED BY KENTLAND JURY

Last of Charges Against Former Garage Man Decided—Hope Experience Proves Useful.

James L. Willis was cleared of the charge of perjury at Kentland Tuesday, the jury returning at about midnight with a verdict in his favor. The jury had been out about two hours. Willis returned to this city with his attorneys, W. H. Parkinson and J. A. Dunlap. While there is no doubt that the story of the Short boy was true and that he saw Willis, just as he claimed to have seen him, on the night of the assault on the Thompson girl, there were several who testified that the reputation of the Short boy for truth and veracity was bad and this had its weight with the jury. Willis >fe now free and it is hoped the trials he has been through and the expense to which he has been placed wall serve to reform him and that he will have a higher respect for womanhood and live a better life during the future, notwithstanding the fact that justice in his case has so entirely miscarried in .his favor.