Page:Redd v. State (1897).pdf/3

ARK.] there was a raft of saw logs destined for the mill below but which had in some way or for some reason been stopped at that point, and perhaps some of the logs had been detached, and were separated from the raft, but lay near by. The bayou had been somewhat swollen at the time of the death of Skipper, but when a particular examination of the locality was made, a few days afterwards, the water had fallen eighteen inches or two feet, and many tracks of persons wading in the water before the fall appeared in the wet ground after the water had receded therefrom. Among these tracks appeared those of the deceased; at least tracks answering to the peculiarly shaped shoes he wore at the time of his death. There were spots of blood also found on and about the logs, which indicated that persons about the time of the death had stood or walked on these logs. Various other indications of a struggle were observable at and near the place, and detailed in evidence. The higher or second bank of the bayou hid the body from the view of those passing along the neighboring road.

The first question to be solved was whether the deceased was murdered or came to his death by his own hands. In favor of the theory that it was a suicide, the evidence was quite meagre, and all having reference to the state of physical health of the deceased, and his pecuniary embarrassments, claimed by the defense to be circumstances sufficient to account for the suicide. On the other hand, the position of the body when found, the testimony of an expert physician and surgeon as to the contraction and relaxation of the muscles of the hands of one committing suicide by cutting his throat, and some testimony of non-experts as to whether the muscles were contracted or relaxed in isolated, but similar, cases coming under the witnesses' observation, all, it was claimed by the prosecution, went to show more or less