, 1876-08-04
Self-Crimination.

Persons under suspicion of crime have
frequently been known to confess guilt
when they have afterward been proven
innocent, being urged to make false
confession by incentives, the force Of
which is difficult to estimate, or even to
acknowledge at all, but which, never
theless, have proved sufficient to deter
mine them to acknowledge as true, accu-
sations which were false. For this rea-
son, in all our courts of justice, no
confession is ever listened to when it
can be shown that the slightest word or
deed could be construed into an induce
ment to make it; and in nearly all cases
where a prisoner pleads guilty, he is ad-
vised to retract his plea, and allowed
time to reconsider it. We give a case in
which conviction based on a false con-
fession was proved, too late, to be un-
Just: The steward of wealthy English
noblewoman left his home, in early Fall,
to collect her rents. There happened to
reside in the neighborhood an humble
family by the name of Perry, mother
and two sons, Joan, John and Richard,
of whom Joan, the mother, bore but an
Indifferent character, and John, one of
the sons, was known to be half-witted.
1t happened that days and weeks elapsed,
and yet Harrison, the steward, did not
return, nor were any tidings heard of
him. Of course the population of the
place became excited, and tumors soon
became rife that he had been robbed and
murdered. 1t is supposed that the scant
intellect of the poor idiot became
beWildered by the numerous stories
in circulation. for he actually went be.
fore a Justice of the peace, and solemnly
deposed to the murder of Harrison by
his brother Richard, while his mother
and himself looked on, and afterward
joined in robbing the deceased of a hun
dred and forty pounds. On this the
whole three were sent to prison, and at
the following assizes were doubly in
dicted for the robbery and the murder.
They stoutly protested their innocence
of murder, but, hoping their lives
might be spared, pleaded guilty of the
robbery. At the trial, the depositions
of John, and the plea on the Indictment
for robbery, were given in evidence, and
the whole three were forthwith con-
victed. John retFacted his accusation,
declaring that he was mad when he
made it, and knew not what he said.
They all suffered death. The mother
was executed first, it being alleged that
she Influenced her sons, and that they
would never confess while she was liv-
ing; they both died, however, loudly
protesting their innocence. But the dis
appearance of Harrison, the confession
of John, and the plea of guilty" to
the indictment for robbery, seemed to
invest the case with every human GER
tainty. After this poor, ignorant and
deluded family had lain in the grave for
three years, 10, the missing steward re-
turnedl He had been set upon by a
party of crimps fellows who decoyed
men into the army, who forced him to
the seashore, where they hurried him on
shipboard, and carried him off to Tur-
key. They there sold him as a slave to
physician, with whom he lived for
nearly two years, when, his master
dying, he made his escape, and returned
home. Thus the innocence of the un-
fortunate Perry family was fully proven,
but, alasl too late.