May 29, 2025
SHARP'S FATE IN THE
HANDS OF JURY.
RELIGIOUS FANATIC WEEPS
DURING THE AURGMENTS.
Prosecutor Conkling Pleads Strongly
for the Death Penalty -- "Adam
God" Sat Unmoved
Through It All.
After deliberating from 2:50 o'clock yesterday afternoon until 10 o'clock last night, the jury in the James Sharp murder case declared its inability to reach a verdict, and was locked up for the night. It will be called into criminal court at 9 o'clock this morning.
Yesterday was taken up entirely by arguments in the Sharp case.
In the morning A. E. Martin concluded for the defense. He spoke until the noon recess. During his speech the widow of A. O. Dalbow, one of the policemen killed in the riot, fainted and had to be carried from the courtroom. She fainted also the first day of the trial.
After the noon recess, Virgil Conkling, prosecuting attorney, summed up for the state. Mr. Conkling pleaded strongly for the death penalty. He said the testimony given by Harry Hoffman, deputy marshal, about the dream Sharp had, in which penitentiary life appeared easy, should prove that imprisonment would be no punishment, but rather would be welcomed by the defendant.
In his argument, Mr. Conkling said:
ARRAIGNED AS A COWARD.
"I will not rely on the testimony of any witness other than the defendant himself. If his own words do not condemn him then you are at liberty to set him free. No verdict you can render will restore to life Michael Mullane, Albert O. Dalbow or Andrew J. Selsor, nor will it restore Patrick Clark, who grappled unarmed with this fanatic, the eye he lost on that day.
"Counsel for the defense try to inject into this case the claim that the man is being tried for his religion. It is unnecessary to state that this is not true. This is the Twentieth century and every man is accorded the liberty of his conscience. But that liberty does not arm the assassin, it does not give strength to the ruffian. It does not allow a man to break the laws of God and man."
Strongly Mr. Conkling arraigned Sharp as a coward, contrasting his flight with the fight to the death made by Pratt. He pictured Sharp's hasty departure from the scene of combat, leaving behind wife, followers, faith and playing the part of coward.
Mr. Conkling's whole line of reasoning was as to the amount of punishment t hat should be given him. The vital point of the whole case, said Mr. Conking, was whether Sharp knew it was wrong to kill a man. Nothing else, he said, was involved.
IN THE HANDS OF GOD.
During Mr. Conkling's speech Sharp sat without the shadow of an expression on his face. During Martin's address he had wept. After the jury went out the fanatic who called himself Adam God asserted that his fate was in the hands of God. He was taken into a witness room and there for an hour talked his strange preachings to a score of the curious. He did not seem worried over the outcome of the trial.
Sharp was a leader of the band of religious fanatics who participated in a riot at the city hall December 8 of last year. He was tried on the charge of killing Michael P. Mullane, a patrolman. Besides Mullane, there were killed Patrolman A. O. Dalbow, A. J. Selsor, a spectator, and Luis Pratt, member of the fanatic band. Captain Patrick Clark of the police was severely wounded by Sharp.
Labels: Adam God sect, criminal court, murder, police
