The Jury Struggles with a High-Stakes Financial Scandal

At 10 o'clock this morning, the jury in the White forgery trial was still out. The chances are that it will disagree. Contrary to public expectation, the jury is leaning toward an acquittal. If rumors from the jury room are to be believed, at one o'clock the jury was divided, with an acquittal to one for conviction. At midnight the jury was still out for counts, and one of the jurors stated there were still four members that believed White guilty. If the jury hangs in this case, it will doubtless be tried over, unless some one of the other indictments is sustained. The case was not given to the jury until ten minutes after 10 o'clock in the evening. Only two or three were examined, and nearly the whole day was taken up by the arguments of counsel. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Moore concluded his argument at 10 o'clock, and concluded shortly before noon. He managed the array of evidence and the difficult case with a masterly way, and preserved every point in the complicated case with remarkable clearness. Later, Hall followed with a very clever statement of the theory of the defense, and reviewed the train of unfortunate circumstances that appeared to have surrounded White. James Hamilton Lewis followed with an eloquent appeal for the man whom he said could not have possibly committed the crime, even if he had the opportunity, for the reason that he lacked the ability. Attorney Fenley, in the concluding argument, called particular attention to White's ability to commit such a crime as Judge Hanford's charge was very exhaustive and delivered with great deliberation and directness. He stated that the following four elements must be found to exist in order to make a forgery: 1. The intent to defraud; 2. That there was an absolute falsification; 3. That there was an actual uttering of the instrument; 4. That all must have been done without authority or knowledge. The defendants filed twenty-four exceptions to the judge's charge. Fourteen were for refusing to give instructions asked and eleven were for errors in instructions given. Altogether, the defense saved over 100 exceptions during the progress of the trial.