On Saturday evening, March 13th, the jury brought in its final verdict of
guilty. In the face of the very evident ability of the lumber interests,
to satisfy its vengeance at will, any other verdict would have been
suicidal--for the jury.
The prosecution was out for blood and nothing less than blood. Day by day
they had built the structure of gallows right there in the courtroom. They
built a scaffolding on which to hang ten loggers--built it of lies and
threats and perjury. Dozens of witnesses from the Chamber of Commerce and
the American Legion took the stand to braid a hangman's rope of untruthful
testimony. Some of these were members of the mob; on their white hands the
blood of Wesley Everest was hardly dry. And they were not satisfied with
sending their victims to prison for terms of from 25 to 40 years, they
wanted the pleasure of seeing their necks broken. But they failed. Two
verdicts were returned; his honor refused to accept the first; no
intelligent man can accept the second.
Here is the way the two verdicts compare with each other: Elmer Smith and
Mike Sheehan were declared not guilty and Loren Roberts insane, in both
the first and second verdicts. Britt Smith, O.C. Bland, James McInerney,
Bert Bland and Ray Becker were found guilty of murder in the second degree
in both instances, but Eugene Barnett and John Lamb were at first declared
guilty of manslaughter, or murder "in the third degree" in the jury's
first findings, and guilty of second degree murder in the second.
The significant point is that the state made its strongest argument
against the four men whom the jury practically exonerated of the charge of
conspiring to murder. More significant is the fact that the whole verdict
completely upsets the charge of conspiracy to murder under which the men
were tried. The difference between first and second degree murder is that
the former, first degree, implies premeditation while the other, second
degree, means murder that is not premeditated. Now, how in the world can
men be found guilty of conspiring to murder without previous
premeditation? The verdict, brutal and stupid as it is, shows the weakness
and falsity of the state's charge more eloquently than anything the
defense has ever said about it.