Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1908 — “MANSLAUGHTER” IS VERDICT OF JURY [ARTICLE]

“MANSLAUGHTER” IS VERDICT OF JURY

Only One Juror Held Out for Plea of Insanity; All Others Favoring Life Imprisonment. The jury in the Dan Day murder case returned a verdict at about 10:40 Thursday night. It was for manslaughter, which carries with it the prescribed penalty of the law, 2 to 21 years in the penitentiary. At about 10 o’clock Thursday night Judge Hanley sent for the jury and asked them if they needed any further Instructions. They said they did not and if they were given a half hour more time they believed they would arrive at a verdict. Accordingly they again adjourned to the jury room and in half an hour they reported that they had arrived at a verdict and Sheriff O’Connor brought the defendant to the court house and the verdict was reported and the sen'tence passed. The jury was -then discharged. ' Dan seemed tp take his sentence without much feeling, and it is probable that he does not have much of an idea how grave a crime he committed nor what the punishment means, and it has been evident all along that he was quite indifferent of the outcome of his trial. Of course, the way the jury stood was not long a secret and it was soon learned that all but one of the jurors had favored a penitentiary sentence from the start. The dissenting furor was Ellis R. Jones, of Remington, who contended that Day was insane and that he should not be sent to the penitentiary at all. All the other members of the jury favored a finding of second degree murder, which involved a life sentence in the penitentiary, and it was therefore a case of 11 men against one almost from the first No one favored the administration of the death penalty. So a verdict might easily have been

arrived at within a few minutes after the argument was completed and the instruction of the judge given but for one man, who, of course, had a perfect right to maintain any conviction he had in the matter. The sentence is an indeterminate one, and while it is possible that a pardon might be procured any time after two years, it is very unlikely that this could be done, for the reason that in murder cases pardons are not usually granted without the concurrence Of all members of the jury that tried the ca«e. Dan is unfortunate and the sympathy of the public goes out to him and at no time on the part of any person was there any feeling of revenge in his punishment, but every person regarded that he was an unsafe person to be permitted to have freedom and even his relatives that have a most tender feeling for him, have thought that he would be best off in a place from which escape was Impossible.

■And while Dan is being discussed ' it may be said that-there can be no doubt but that his crime resulted di* rectly from the use of liquors, and the person or persons who gave or sold him liquor have the blood of Daisy Phillips largely on their own hands. And this brings out the further fact that there are a lot of worthless curs always for a small profit to violate tie law and to aid in the wrecking of Ilves and the commission of crime, and attorney Williams when he made his eloquent argument to the jury spared no one in his blame for the fact that Dan Day was allowed to have weapons and to drink liquor and to go unnoticed in these offenses Without a rigorous Investigation by officers as to where he got his whiskey. His words on the witness stand “I halnt goln’ to tell’* should live in the memory of every person who heard It as long as life lasts, and they should occasionally wonder who Dan had In mind, and should dwell upon the fact that the skunk that sold Dan the liquor for the measley profit there was In It was really an accomplice to the murder; not knowing, of course, that liquor had the element of murder, but -gropingly, selfishly, fiendishly not caring as long as Dan Day held sacred his pledge of secrecy. Hell has plenty of room for the criminal that shields his crime from the discovery of those pledged to enforce he law, and hell will some day get a crack at Dan's involuntary ally tn this murder. Rensselaer people have said by an emphatic majority that they do not want liquor sold here, and the officers should fill the Jail with those who either drink until they become intoxicated or those who are guilty of

illicit sale or false statement in order to procure liquor. , It is expected that Dan will be taken to the reformatory at Jeffersonville the first of next week, probably Tuesday.