Show I I Circumstantial Evidence low lIow Far Does It Justify Conviction in Capital Cases s Before i the Courts of the land T HE case or of Nan Patterson revives THE I f for r both the interested public and I the legal profession the never solved puzzle of circumstantial eVi eVidence cv dence Sorpe of the greatest trials in history have hae been fought over this contested ed ground legal books are full of cases some showing how the in innocent have been condemned and others how the guilty guilt have escaped Nan Pattersons trial adds another to the thc list No one aside from her ber berf f self elC knows for a certainty who fired the shot that killed Caesar Young veil ven after days of evidence the jurymen dl di vided equally on the question The case becomes a real life Mystery ot of ota a Hansom Cab Not many years ears ago there was a somewhat similar ease case tried in New NewYork York rork courts The facts were related to a reporter for the World by a prom prominent inept lawyer a follows hI 1 remember an amusing Instance of the first woman that I 1 tried when in the district attorneys office She was accused of her admirer who was a married m man n and had ex expressed expressed pressed his intention of returning to his wife The late William F Howe defended her offering this defense Mr Rowes Clever Defense U H Her admirer growing despondent Upon up his mind to leave her br drew a pistol and attempted to kill himself She grabbed the and In the struggle It went off and shot him The jury came in at 12 at night with a verdict of not guilty and as they went downstairs I asked them to ten tell me inc how they arrived at such a verdict They replied that they had made a resolve In the jury room riot not to discuss the case with any out outsider sider eldar I suggested that I was not an outsider and wanted to know for my myown myown own instruction because I represented the people in the prosecution and ande as asH asIt It H wore were represented the jury They had gotten nearly down the stairs when one of the jurors called back U What difference does it make to you Ou T TuI uI 1 called back to them to wait a moment They all stood still and I It makes this difference to me inc gentlemen The lady offered to plead guilty of manslaughter in the first de degree degree gree provided the sentence should not exceed twenty years and as I 1 had L taken the responsibility ot of refusing this plea I 1 had a natural curiosity to know when she had admitted her own guilt gunt how it was that you found her innocent Would Rave Served Nan Had Nan Xan Patterson testified that she ehe had purchased the revolver in her own desperation at l losing her lover wIth the idea of killing herself and had bad attempted to do so o In the cab with hint on the way ay to the steamer when hen all her efforts to persuade him not to go had failed and that he see In ng the revolver had grabbed at and L tried to take it away from her and it was as discharged in the struggle I doubt very much if the jury would have disagreed This Would explain the letter re from her sister which spoke of her great grief griet and desperation it H would have explained the purchase of the revolver It would have ex her statement to Young that should not go because she knew per perfectly perfectly I well ell that it if she killed herself herselt or shot herself in the cab on the way ay aydon down don to the steamer he would be de and would not be able to join jole I his bis on the boat It has bas alway I seemed to sic me that this was wa pretty nearly the correct version erslon or ci orthe the story and would certainly have ac acquitted acquitted quitted her Four Noted Murder Tri Trials ls New York criminal courts have had hai hadIn L In recent years four extraordinary r murder trials based entirely on cir clr evidence Three of these thes i were poisoning cases Only one re suited in final conviction and execution tion that hat one being the first of the thi series Dr Robert W Buchanan watt wad ac accused accused ot of poisoning his wIfe The evi dene e was purely circumstantial but bu I after a most sensational trial lasting r man many days he was pronounced gUilty r rr f md and eventually put to death at Sing SIng prison It has been said that tha t Dr Buchanan convicted himself by go going going ing on the witness stand He maln tattled to the end his claim o in inno no Congo and Ud by Is classed as a n a o of I eId evidence n to The case casc of Mrs Mary Alice Flem ing i ng accused of poisoning her mother M rs Bliss attracted wIde attention and a nd led to a a revIval of many stories of o f the famous Italian prisoner Lucre tia ti a Borgia Mrs Fleming Flaming however was w as acquitted the j jUry ry considering in inconclusive conclusive c the circumstantial evidence offered o Roland B Molineaux accused of sendIng ending s through the mails a bottle of pOlson oison p that killed art an innocent old wo woman man m an Mrs Irs Adams was first ot o f murder and sent to the death house I at a t Sing Sing A decision b by the court of o f appeals regarding the admission of certain ertain c evidence and a second trial resulted r finally in his bis acquittal The case ase c was as a remarkable legal battle and a nd furnished much materIal for the prosecuting p and defending counsel in future f circumstantial eases cases There Thereas was w as very ery little direct e ei dence against Molineaux and only the chain of con contributing t circumstances and ion tion t led to his first conviction Dr Kennedy accused of mUrdering Dolly Reynolds in the Grand hotel was first convicted and finally allowed I Ito to t o go free after trials that resulted in hr d of the juries No 10 out outsider sider ider e witnessed the crime md and the at attempts tempts t of the prosecution to fasten guilt on Dr Kennedy by purely cir circumstantial c evidence and deductions ailed f Although murder was done In each of these three latter eases cases the eventual al of the accused caused ins jus justice tice fo halt and no one has baa been pun shed l for the killing kUling of three Women Mrs Irs Bliss Mrs Adams and Dolly Re Reynolds Innocent Victims ot o Circumstances Legal records contain many retorts reports I of death wrongfully by reason eason of circumstantial evidence A famous One In the records ot of Great BritaIn deals with the cas case of William Shaw of Edinborough who was tried and put to death for the murder of his daughter Catherine Afterward it was discovered that the gIrl had corn com committed suicide establishing a some somewhat somewhat what similar to the defense of Nan Patterson Shaw quarreled with his daughter on account of her encouraging the at attentions of Do a oung man and urged another suitor One evening after father and daughter had disputed I so loudly that neighbors in an adjoin adjoining adjoining ing apartment heard th m Shaw went out slamming the door behInd him Later groans were ere heard the neigh neighbors neighbors bors entered and found Catharine stabbed and dying She was heard to tc say Cruel father th thOu u art the cause i of my death She then expired Despite his protes protestations protestations of Innocence Shaw Was con convicted convicted and hanged Nearly a year later a new tenant in iii inthe L the Shaw apartments round found a paper pape that h had d fallen into a cavity of ont one i side or of the chimney It was a letter p reading as follows Barbarous Father Your cruelty of 01 having put it out of my power to join joir L my fate to that of the only man I could lave Iov and tyrannically insisting upon my marrying one whom hated has made mt rue form torm a resolution I to put an end to an n L has be ome a burden to me 1 not I shaU find ni in an tl r world orId for sure no n benevolent c can r require quIre that I should any any lo gez r 7 live iu in myself in this 3 death I lay at your charge When you t as the In I that plunged the mur knife in the of the un tin CA CATHARINE E SHAW letra Case I The case ot of Mrs Maybrick recen ty released after spending fourteen ye yep years lu p prIsons for tor the murder of h r bus and was a noted convIction on cIrcumstantial evidence While sio inO wi witness ness c could uld swear that lIr May brick gave her husband the feta drug yet so strong was I the chalEt chain of circumstances and so tightlY was she enmeshed in net of presumption that the jury found her guilty Mrs Maybrick always has main tamed her Innocence more strongly now nov In free freedom om than before Perhaps the truth of Mr death may amy never be revealed and the case cas will remain on legal record as one of the examples of circumstantial mysterIes Official clemency saved her ber from the death penalty and finally permitted h her r release from t m prison In these days das of la r ti an innocent victim om sH J extreme penalty The re oti of one oneto o to hundred undred h years ago contain accounts of o f hast hasty executions of wrongly con d prisoners The Hanging of Harry One or of the most noted of these cases was w as the hanging of Harry Blek at A Albany for the supposed murder of W lliam illiam Wickliffe o occurred c in Revolutionary evolutionary R war da days s On the road between b Albany and Sch was wasn an a n old inn the Blue Horse The There e lake Blake B and Wickliffe quarreled and came ame c to blows until separated by lakes Blakes B friends Walton and Grayson The men mounted their horses and rode ode r away Walton and Grayson when nearing earing n Albany heard a cry for help and a nd spurred to the rescue They found Wickliffe dead in the road with Bale B lake bending over him knife in inand hand h and andOh Oh Harry What have you OU done exclaimed e Grayson Blake stared Are you mad I 1 did not kill him bim I 1 cane here but a mo moment meat ment before yourselves hearing bearing some someone someone one call for help I 1 found Wickliffe dead with this knife in his bis bosom and was endeavor g to pull It out when you came caine up The three friends looked front from one oneto oneo to t o another Then Grayson Grason who was wasa wasa a a magistrate said saidI I 1 my duty God grant you JOU may prove yourself Innocent but un unless unless less my eyes me I 1 saw yoU that man manThe manThe The trial brought out circumstantial quarrel threats riding away discoverY of the murdered man footprints in the road corresponding to the prisoners and finally testimony against his frIend Blake Blak was Vas found guilty and sentenced to death On the day of the executIon Grayson begged him to confess uKo No I cannot for I 1 am Innocent were Blakes last words Three months later Grayson Grason and the jUdge who presided ed at the trial each received it a note summoning them to see a prisoner prison r who was to be hanged banged the followIng day They met In the cell and the prisoner confessed the murder of William Wickliffe for which Harry Blake h d died a victim of cir circumstantial evidence Justice Dalys Opinion There are two kinds of proof ad admitted admitted in judIcial pr proceedings Justice Joseph F Daly wrote to the World during the case direct or positive as where a witness to the tact fact in dispute testifies to it from his bis own knowledge and c circumstantial where proof of collateral facts Is ad admitted admitted because they afford presumptions presumptions which tend to establish the fact in controversy uIn In criminal cases there may be no eyewitness of the crime but there may be circumstances from which It if unexplained by the accused the jury may infer his guilt But the jurors are instructed that the circumstances must be such as to produce a moral certainty of nd to exclude any other reasonable hypothesis It is and ever will be a grave ques ion in every case of circumstantial evidence how far It justifies a con conviction in a capital case cale The one rule ito be borne in mind is the roof proof must first fairly warrant the ion of guilt and sec second md must exclude Cery other reasonable the last is the most York World |