down throughout the basement of the courthouse and up to where Judge Nuessle was; on the way over, the sheriff told me to run in going between the jail and the courthouse, in order that no one would see me, for there was a mob in town who would get me if they could. When I was taken before Judge Nuessle, I again told the same story that I had been told the night before, believing that if I did not it would cause me to be kept in Washburn, where I was afraid of being hung by a mob, or being killed in the jail by the man who beat me the night before.
“I further state that I never owned a double-barreled shotgun, and that I never saw the gun that was found in the slough near Wolff’s home until after I was placed in jail.”
He further states in his affidavits that he was in no way implicated in the murder, and that he is innocent of the crime for which he has been committed to the state penitentiary.
George D. McDowell was present all of the time on the night of May 12th during the examination of Layer in the sheriff’s office. E. F. Hezner, another detective, was not present all of the time. He was the person who wrote the confession made by Layer. It was written about 2 a. m. on the morning of the 13th of May.
One Myrle Cook, who was acting as a barber in the penitentiary, made the following affidavit:
“Myrle Cook, being first duly sworn, deposes and says that he was acting as a barber in the State Penitentiary at Bismarck, N. D., at the time Henry Layer was brought to the institution, and that, after the day the said Henry Layer arrived at the penitentiary, this affiant shaved said Henry Layer and gave him a haircut; that when this affiant went to work on him, he noticed that said Henry Layer was badly beaten up, and that both sides of his face and the top of his head were swollen, and it looked as if some one had beat him. The skin was not broken, but was bruised and swollen. As he got into the barber chair, this affiant noticed that he had been beaten, and asked him what had done it. Layer replied that he had been hit over the head by the man who had charge of him before he was brought to the penitentiary, and he broke down and commenced crying, saying that he was innocent, and cried: ‘Oh, my children, my children!’”
The affidavit of Dr. C. E. Stackhouse is as follows:
“Dr. C. E. Stackhouse, under oath, deposes and swears that he examined Henry Layer in the North Dakota State Penitentiary May 15,
