LEGAL INCIDENTS.
IV.
JIM WAY.
By J. W. Donovan.
That many a man is convicted without just cause, needs no argument; that many men are imprisoned unjustly, need not be urged to be believed. Such was the case with Ben and Jim Way, father and son.
It was before the war, at St. Clair, on a cold winter morning, when the sheriff called up the turnkey early, to admit a couple of English prisoners under arrest for murder. It was a dreary, bitter cold morning. The prisoners were scantily clad in "blue jeans," and looked tired and hungry, pinched and half frozen. They pleaded not guilty, and were soon bound over to the circuit for trial by jury.
Trial-day came, and they were ably defended; but their showing was rather meagre. The jury — a very dull and stupid and biassed one — found defendants guilty of murder in the first degree. The father and son sat dazed under the finding; at last the old man said, "That's wrong; that's wrong." This was overheard by a bright young lawyer, who remembered it. He visited Judge Turner before sentence, and stated what he heard, and urged that a new trial be granted, which, after much delay, was allowed, and a new trial set and had, in which the real truth came out with all the vividness that a boy's keen nature could develop it.
It appeared, by the father's story, that the killing was not murder in any sense, but merely the killing of a human being with out motive or malice. Ben Way and son were English. The neighborhood was of another nationality. A school-meeting had been held, at which the old man had advocated an advance in the teacher's salary. Words had followed; and on their way home, Ben and Jim Way were beset by one who struck a heavy blow at the father with a club, but failed to hit him in the darkness, when the big fellow grappled and threw the old man face downward, who then called to his son, "Help, Jim! he's killing me;" and the son grabbed an axe near by, and cut the assailant deep in the back, killing him instantly.
To avoid the mob who gathered and broke in the old man's windows, his wife fled to the lake-shore; and later on, the father and son followed, leaving a deserted team and home and many marks of crime behind them. It was at the lake-shore they were arrested, on the night before their capture as described. After hearing the old man's story (not related at the first trial), the jury said, "Not guilty as to Ben, and guilty as to Jim," to the surprise of the trial judge and counsel, and a majority of the spectators.
Jim was small and young, and bore it like a boy hero. He had become a hero as soon as the old man told of his bravery. At the time of sentence, he said, "It's all right, Judge. I struck him, — I did it to save father. That's all I have to say, Judge, — I did it to save father. His words appealed to me, Judge. You know I was excited I could n't help it."
Every eye in the court-room grew moist; tears came down the cheeks of the judge, who gave "Jim" a sentence of three months in prison, and hoped they would "be kind to him." At this remark the whole crowd broke out in tears and applause. "Jim" was met with kindness at Jackson. After a few days' confinement, he was given the freedom of the yard, and a nominal restraint only was kept over him, for he was hailed as a hero for defending his father.
