MURDER CHARGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 182, 3 August 1932, Page 7

MURDER CHARGE.

Trial of Captain Lancaster

Opened.

COUNSEL'S PLEA FAILS

(Received 9.30 a.m.)

MIAMI (Fla.), August 2.

The trial of Captain W. Lancaster, the well-known British airman and comE anion of Mrs. Keith Miller in many of er flying ventures, started to-day. Captain Lancaster is charged with the murder of Haydn Clarke, an American airman whom Mrs. Miller had promised to marry. The case is being heard in the Dado County Circuit Court before Judge H. F. Atkinson.

Jamas Carson, chief counsel for the defence, moved in vain for a continuance of the trial until September 15, asserting that Dr. P. L. Dodge, a specialist, who was to be one of the chief witnesses, was ill and unable to attend.

The motion declared that Dr. Dodge was he*d of the commission that conducted the autopsy over Clarke's exhumed body several weeks after death and was convinced that the youth was a narcotic addict and that he had committed suicide. A crowd of curious spectators, including many women, jammed the corridors before the Court opened. A jury of 12 men was selected. Each juror said he had no compunction against capital punishment, and in reply to questions by Mr. Carson, said that they would not allow the sordid facts in the lives of the accused and Mrs. Keith Miller to influence their opinions.