St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-04-18
The Phair Case.

l..
dence in Phair's favor have been pre-
sented to our Governors and our courts
in driblets, and any stream will wash
away a succession of little obstacles
which if all built together in one place
would stay its course. If Downing had
been brought two years ago to Windsor
and by any fair test had as clearly as
now identified Phair, it is probable
that something might have come of it.
But his late visit to Windsor and
satisfying himself that Phair was the
man that he saw on the Providence
train that tenth day of June was under
the circumstances only little addition
to the evidence tending to throw doubt
upon the guilt of the condemned man.
After the decision by the Supreme
Court in January, it was almost certain
that that court would not reopen the
case upon the single item of new evil
dence obtained by test that would be
felt might stimulate the imagination OF
a man anxious to do his whole duty to
the condemned, and make his memory
unreliable. And if the two Judges
knew that the rehearing would do nc
good, it would have been tantalizing
to Phair as we'll as trifling with the
processes of Justice to have ordered a
stay of execution.
But the public perhaps because so
little informed, felt some surprise at
That court to be sure has to guard
other interests than only those of the
accused. There must be no trif1ing
with Justice, the state must not be
made unnecessary expense, it must not
be possible for the counsel for crimi-
nal to interpose repeated delays and
tire out the court so as to save the
guilty by their mere pertinacity. The
court has this responsibility, yet on the
other hand the public feel that there
is doubt in Phair's case, and that in
time it might be cleared up if he could
live. Trifling with life is more dan
gerous than trifing with justice, Phair
will seem to be hung upon the proba-
bility rather than the certainty beyond
reasonable doubt of his guilt being
established, the court will appear to
esteem human life lightly, and its in
fluence will so far tend to cheaper hui
man life instead of guarding it. The
public, feeling that the courts do not
give new evidence sufficient weight,
will naturally develop a sentiment that
will make it difficult to convict in the
next trials for murder, and there is
danger that refusing Phair a further
trial will result in several murderers
being unjustly acquitted.
The doubt in the public mind as to
Phair's guilt, which hardly existed at
the time of his conviction, a conviction
undoubtedly made easier by the fact
of public prejudice existing against
him, for he was bad man, has ever
since been developing until it is strong
enough to make amends for that preju-
dice. 1t has some foundation. The
public remember that the probable
motive alleged for the murder was to
obtain the little personal property that
was tai ken, which it is claimed Phair
pawned, obtaining at most less than
one hundred dollars, while there was
offered for his conviction if remember
twenty-five hundred, making a motive
apparently twenty-five times as great
to secure his conviction as that which
is supposed to have led to the murder.
Since the conviction of Phair the
public have been coming to understand
his ability, his smartness. 1t seems
improbable that such a man should
have committed the murder fOI any
motive that appears, that if he did he
should have been foolish enough to di-
rect attention to himself by going to
Boston, though indeed it appears that
he had arranged before to go to Provi-
dence; improbable that a shrewd man
and master of the pen should not
have disguised his hand as well as
entered a false name, and when asked
in Jail to write this name when he knew
what use was to be made of that writ
ing should, with every motive to
change, have written precise fac
smile of the other signature, so that
the several letters space and measure
as nearly alike as though one were
traced from the other: were they not
so traced Improbable that shrewd
man should pawn those articles himself
at several places making it so easy to
convict him, and then being safely out
OF Vermont, and having by his flight
drawn attention to himself should 90
back to be arrested. This was either
innocence or drunkenness or insuffer-
able stupidity. Who else was on that
train with Phair toward Boston is not
known, but a certain troupe of ten OF
""vH was tuere, having | think
spent the night of the murder or a part
OF it in Rutland, and though strangers,
likely enough to know the kind of house
IN which the murder was committed,
Every one knows the difficulty OF
making out case against a member
OF any travelling company like this, OF
the circus at Brandon from which the
midnight train brought Phair, and NAV
have brought others.
Any one who went to Boston on that
morning train with Phair may possibly
have carried the property to he navned