Summary

Emotions were high at the next day of the trial, as Young tried to bring Officer Ware back to the stand to “finally get in a word about Robert Burns’ confessions” (131). As Big Tom and Young shouted at one another, Judge Avery sent the jurors out of the room to yell at the two attorneys. He announced that the trial “had turned into a “carnival” and a “circus,” asking the two men to be “professional” (131). After restoring order, Jimmy Burns took the stand as the last witness of the state and claimed that at Shirley’s wake, the family learned about a man, Alphonso Murphy, who said the the Reverend tried to hire him to kill Shirley. In this moment, Cep announces, “all the rumors of voodoo drained from the courtroom” (133). Radney called to the...