Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1897 — A New Trial for Sutherlin. [ARTICLE]

A New Trial for Sutherlin.

The Supreme court, Wednesday, reversed the decision of the Marshall circuit court sentencing William Sutherliu to the penitentiary for life for murder in the second degree. William E. B. Fetters was murdered and buried under the carcass of a mule in a lonely spot on the shore of Eagle Lake, near Knox. Sutherlin had been associated with the murdered man in business. The evidence against him was 'circumstantial, but apparently conclusive. The judge in the trial court instructed the jury that the finding of the body implied that the person who placed it there was guilty of murder. He went so far in his instructions that the supreme court reversed the lower court’s decision and ordered that a new trial be given Sntherlin.