[3] Throughout his legal career, he tried criminal cases and prosecuted successful appeals on behalf of convicted defendants in the state and federal courts of Texas, Colorado, and the Oklahoma and Indian Territories.

The case made Furman legitimately famous, as it was widely followed in the national newspapers of the day, and warranted an extensive 1921 article in American State Trials, almost thirty years after the verdict.

In the Twin Territories, Furman was among that group of luminary lawyers, including Moman Prueitt, Lee and A. C. Cruce, Robert L. Williams, Col. Stilwell H. Russell, and Temple Lea Houston, whose services were sought in high profile, often capital trials.

In 1900, however, "Brother Henry Furman is made Financial Agent for the Home's Fund," and "[t]he records of the Indian Territory Grand Lodge communications over the next several years show that he dedicated great amounts of time, personal sacrifice, and resources to the project.

In the 1907 Democratic preferential primary race that preceded statehood, he received the second highest number of votes for nomination to one of the two new Oklahoma seats in the United States Senate.

Courts are not established as an arena in which contending counsel may use the processes of the law as a game of skill, but their sole purpose is to enforce justice, punish criminals, and suppress vice, and it is their duty to disregard all errors which do not involve substantial rights and result in material injury to the defendant.

[19] Judge Furman believed the new Court must play a leading role in establishing order in the anarchic and bloody society forged from the Twin Territories, promising swift punishment to outlaws and gunmen and an end to lawlessness, but fair trials to persons of every station.

In order that this improved condition may be made permanent, juries must be careful, firm, and fearless in the discharge of their duties, and courts must uphold their verdicts when it appears from the record that they were rendered upon sufficient evidence and were fairly obtained, and that the defendant was not deprived of any of his substantial rights.

[23] Furman's penetrating discussions on the principles of evidence law, justifiable homicide, and other topics drew favorable notices from President Theodore Roosevelt, lay writers, and Courts around the country.

Every man's experience demonstrates that his beliefs are based upon a great number of circumstances, many of which standing by themselves are not fully proven and would amount to nothing, but which, when combined, give strength to each other and constitute proof as strong as holy writ.

Instances have been industriously collected in which persons have been wrongfully convicted upon circumstantial evidence which are invariably used for the purpose of intimidating courts and juries and preventing them from enforcing the law upon this class of testimony.

But few persons are so depraved and so deeply sunken in moral turpitude as to be able to break into the sacred house of life and shed its precious stream with minds absolutely free from anger, resentment, terror, or some other disturbing passion.

For these reasons the facts charged in these indictments constitute a natural crime, for their result would be to enable appellees to reap where they had not sown and to eat in idleness the bread earned by the sweat of the farmer's brow.

A single drop of sweat upon the brow of honest labor shines more brightly and is more precious in the eyes of God and is of more benefit to the human race than all of the diamonds that ever sparkled in the crown of any king.

If he will take a philosophical view of the situation he can console himself with the reflection that this may not be an unmixed evil, for as his blood becomes thinner and cooler it may have the effect of moderating the ardor of his affections for another man's wife and of assisting him in subduing his passions and keeping them within due bounds, which all good citizens should do.

Seducing other men's wives and then threatening to kill the injured husband on sight if he objects to his wife's defilement are things which the law will not sanction, tolerate, or condone.

To Furman's southern sensibilities, seduction of the innocent woman and abandonment of her in shame (and frequently with child) were crimes so heinous that no modern punishment was truly fit to answer them.

Of course, no one should be convicted upon suspicion; but where a defendant has been found guilty of this infamous and detestable offense, after having had a fair and impartial trial, and the evidence clearly shows his guilt — as it does in this case — it would be a crime against society and treason to virtue to set the verdict aside.

Under Judge Furman's leadership, the Court firmly established the doctrines of substantial justice and harmless error by interpreting a handful of early statutes to abrogate the strict common law rules of pleading and procedure.

"[40] In Furman's view, the Oklahoma Statutes now mandated a construction of law "according to its spirit and reason, so as to enable it to reach and destroy the evil at which it was aimed, and thereby effect the object for which it was enacted and promote justice.

[42] The legislature also provided in Section 6957 of the Laws of 1909 that "[o]n appeal the court must give judgment without regard to technical errors or defects, or to exceptions which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties."

This court does not propose to grope its way through the accumulated dust, cobwebs, shadows, and darkness of the evening of the common-law rules of procedure; but it will be guided, as the statutes above quoted direct, by the increasing light and inspiration of the rising sun of reason, justice, common sense, and progress .

As such defenses tended to involve minor discrepancies between the pleadings and the proof—for example, the address of an alleged establishment operated in violation of the liquor law, or the day on which the alleged violation occurred—one verse is sufficient to illustrate the Judge's point: First, then, we ask the court to quash The whole indictment — pray read Bosh On Bluff and Bluster, chapter two: "Ink must be black and never blue; And if the ink used is not black 'Tis ground to send the whole case back!"

The rule, pray please the court, is plain; But here I read the law again — I quote now from authority Of Blow and Buncombe, chapter three: "If any `t' shall not be crossed, Or dot of any `i' be lost, These grave omissions, then, shall be Enough to set defendant free!"

In Ostendorf, Judge Furman complimented counsel for "great ingenuity and industry in the presentation of his case," and expending "much labor in preparing his brief," but cautioned against the desperate tactics employed in the client's defense.

Counsel for appellant was evidently fishing with a grabhook and seining with a dragnet, hoping that by some lucky chance he might catch onto an unforeseen and unknown error, and thereby secure the reversal of a conviction.

It is a matter known to all persons of common intelligence in the state of Oklahoma that the Governor takes the position that legal executions are judicial murder; and that he refuses to permit them to be carried into effect, upon the ground that he would thereby become a party thereto; and that he has expressed his fixed determination to strictly adhere to this policy until the expiration of his term of office.

He has nothing whatever to do with them, unless he may be satisfied that an injustice has been done in an individual case; then he may commute the sentence or pardon the offender; but this can only be done upon the ground that, upon the facts presented, the defendant was a fit subject for executive clemency, and that an exception should be made in his favor as against the general rule of law.

Laws 1910, is as follows: "If the offense charged be punishable with death, the entertaining of such conscientious opinions as would preclude his finding the defendant guilty, in which case he shall neither be permitted nor compelled to serve as a juror."

He bore suffering with great fortitude, and while enduring the most excruciating pain he would meet his friends and family with buoyancy of spirit that was equal to that of the ordinary man in his most comfortable and successful hours.