| Show THE MAYBRICK CASE that an almost entire re verBal of public opinion as to the guilt of mrs maybrick is undergoing in england ia due to the fact that alie evidence in he case it now being more calmly and fair considered than it was during therrial the trial alie re wa a prejudice of the case based on the possible motive to the crime in the immoral conduct of the woman and every eibrt of the prosecution was to bend circumstantial incidents to support of this preconceived theory the woman came into court condemned by public censure and the extraordinary instructions of the judge clearly indicated a bias that was even hostile not until the severity of the sentence was realized was there enough reaction of general sentiment to permit question if the defendant had not been subjected to gross injustice akin to persecution two facts only bore against her her adulterous relations with a man for whom it was supposed she wished to be rid of her husband and the purchase of arsenic lly paper with the solution of which it wad presumed she had poisoned her invalid husband these two facts were dwelt upon and magnified as the sufficient means of the conviction of alie woman and these facts eloquently employed did secure her conviction but the fact outweighing these namely eliat M y brick was a confirmed arsenic cater and had been so for years was tardily introduced into the case as evidence for the defence and weighed nothing with the jury in determining its verdict there now exists no doubt of the very vital fact eliat maybrick had used arsenic for one or two years preceding liis death and it is scientifically known that when arsenic is habitually taken alie doses must be gradually increased to produce the desired effect it was in evidence that maybrick was accustomed to take a white powder the nature of which mrs maybrick dis clemed knowing she also eliat at her husbands request she mixed in one of these powders with the juice of the beef ha drank though it is hardly credible that she deliberately made use of two forms of the poison or eliat if she knew the white powder to be arsenic she would be at pains to buy flypaper for dissolution that she might prepare an arsenic poison in that way the probability that maybrick died from an overdose of arsenic taken with his own knowledge and administered to him by his own request the wife meantime being ignorant of the character of the powder was not taken into consideration though been in the light of recent developments i was the most vital point in alie whole course of the wretched trial only a downright imbecile anxious to poison a man would have acted with the blundering carelessness that marked mrs May bricks use of the flypaper she used no caution in its purchase slie attempted no concealment of it afterward and openly left it in the water where it had been put to soak her conduct was in keeping with the idea that she had obtained the piper for its specific purpose and for that purpose only and in tace of alie dominant fact that maybrick was a persistent arsenic cater and had used the drug for twelve years there was not a scintilla of evidence to warrant the conviction of mrs maybrick as a murder the circumstantial evidence against iier is nullified by this absolute testimony |
