Butts County GaArchives News.....John Holifield - Tried and Acquitted December 1889
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Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 December 24, 2003, 5:55 pm

Middle Ga Argus
John Holifield – Tried and Acquitted

All the parties accused of the killing of John Holifield in Hernando Florida in 
1884 were tried in Brooksville Florida last week and acquitted.  Col Y. A. 
Wright of this place and General Wall of Florida represented the defendants and 
through their superior conduct of the case the accused ones are free men 
again.  We learn that but two witnesses were introduced for the state and that 
their testimony was of no avail for the state.

As a compliment to our fellow townsman, Col. Y. a. Wright, we copy from the 
Florida Times Union the Following well deserved words in his behalf:

The Times Union correspondent would not consider that he had done justice not 
to give special commendation to two of the attorneys, Thomas palmer, Esq., the 
state’s attorney, and Colonel Y. A. Wright of Jackson Ga., council for 
Bledsoe.  The ingenuity the state’s attorney displayed in meeting and resisting 
the obstacles thrown in his way by the able and learned council for the defense 
gained for him not only the admiration of friends and foes but the admiration 
of the defendants on trial for their lives as well, for manly and tearless 
endeavor to do his duty.

Col. Y. A. Wright had, during the trial comparatively but little to say.  When 
he arose to address to the jury no one present but his Georgia friends knew his 
ability.  But from his first sentence the deliberate “may it please your honor 
and you, gentleman of the jury,” the auditors quieted and soon became spell 
bound as he proceeded with his argument.  His remarkable memory of the evidence 
in its details, the lucid manner in which he illustrated the “truth and the 
errors,” that has been testified to, his polished mein (??) and carefully 
selected words raised him at once as one of the heroes of the occasion.  Many 
was the comments such as: “I like that speech better than any of them, and I 
feel sure that the boys will be acquitted.

                                      *     *     *     *     *     *     *     
*
Col. Wright was about to depart to his home, Jackson, Ga., and before leaving 
he desired to thank the court and the bar of Brooksville for their reception 
and said that if he had in the pursuance of his duties said anything harsh, 
that grated up the feelings of any one of them he asked that he be pardoned.

The court said that it should remember Colonel Wright with the kindliest 
feeling and hoped to see him often; that frictions during the trial between the 
council would not be carried beyond the trial of the case.

Otto C. Buterweck, on the part of the bar of Brooksville, said that Mr. Wright 
had by his conduct and his ability won the admiration and esteem of the bar of 
Brooksville, and he assured him that nothing but the kindest and most fraternal 
feelings would be harbored for Col. Wright and in taken of his personal esteem 
he placed a beautiful rose from his coat lapel and pinned it to the coat of Mr. 
Wright.

Middle Ga Argus – Week of December 3, 1889


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