A new article has been added at Newspaper Abstracts > United States > District of Columbia http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=323 Direct link to article: http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=32051 Submitted by: barbara-dave Article Title: Washington Post Article Date: April 9 1912 Article Description: Smith Trial Page 14 Article Text: Washington Post April 9, 1912 Smith Trial Page 14 SMITH GETS 30 YEARS Assailant of Morris Bennett Given the Limit. COUNSEL NOTES AN APPEAL Judge Anderson Denies Delay of Sentence, and Says Details of Crime Are Too Painful for Comment - Attorneys Hope to Overturn Conviction, as It Was Drawn Under District Code With the declaration that he did not care to make comment since the details of the crime involved were too painful to think about much less to recite. Justice ANDERSON in Criminal Court No. 1 yesterday sentenced James H. SMITH, alias Kabusta, recently convicted of an assault to kill and of robbing Morris BENNETT, a Maryland merchant, on Benning road November 20 last, to serve 30 years in the penitentiary - 15 years for each offense, or the maximum penalty allowed under the law. SMITH, after telling the court that he had nothing to say as to why the sentence of the law should not be pronounced, maintained the same stolid indifference which marked his attitude throughout the trial. Attorneys George ?. SHINN and Claude W. OWEN, counsel for the prisoner noted an appeal and obtained leave to prosecute it at the cost of the government as they said their client is without funds. While Messrs. SHINN and OWEN consented to the overruling of their motion for a new trial and an arrest of judgment ,they asked the court to defer sentence until the United States Supreme Court passes on the question of the application of the new United States penal code to the District of Columbia. Depends on Code Should it be determined that the penal code has superseded the District code the assault charge would fall since the indictment was draw under the latter codification. As SMITH will first serve the fifteen years for robbery, United States Attorney WILSON objected to delay and Justice ANDERSON ruled with him. SMITH's crimes were committed near Gitchie Spring. It was testified that on the night preceding the assault he went to Bennett's store at Fairmount Heights and asked the merchant to haul a chest of tools to this city. The next morning Mr. BENNETT picked him up on the road. SMITH, he declared, refused a seat in the front of the vehicle and remained in the rear. As they approached the spring, Mr. BENNETT swore his assailant fell upon him with a hatchet and inflicted numerous wounds which caused him to lay unconscious for four weeks at the Casualty Hospital. SMITH has also been identified by Chicago detectives as a man wanted in that city under the name of Kabusta for two murders. The BENNETT assault followed closely the murder of William H. MICKLE, a Seventh street tobacconist and on account of the similarity of the crimes, SMITH was for some time suspected of being the perpetrator of both. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ DC-Old-News ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NewspaperAbstracts.com - Finding our ancestors in the news! TM http://www.NewspaperAbstracts.com