Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-03-19

Y Il
sircumstan.ial fro's.
Curious CASES IN THE HISTORY OF CRIME
INSTANCES WHERE THE INNOCENT HAVE
SUFFERED.
from the Boston Herald
The first death on record wasa murder,
and Cain was duly sentenced anu PUNISH
ed That the public should be protected
from crime by the prompt and rigorous
punishment of the criminal Is n saying
that goes by itself 1t Is equally true
that the public owes to ITS self-respect
that the innocent should have speedy de-
livery at the hands of the law. 1t Is bet
ter that five criminals should go free than
that one innocent man should suifer but
best, of course, that eaoh one should
come by his own This can onl y be done
by evidence carefully sifted and weighed,
and in crime, and that, too, OF the deep
est dye, much of the evidence is not
direct. but circumstantial. Men do not
rob, burn, poison and murder usually IN
daylight and before men, but secretly,
and often show great acumen and fore
sight in covering the bloody tracks of
their violence. 1t is the work Of the
detectives to track, rs hunter his game,
the criminal through all his windings to
his lair. and bring him into the daylight
of Justice. This is hard work, which
asks keen scent in the sleuth-hounds of
the law, and careful weighing by the
court of the evidence adduced. The case
of Dr. Webster, So years ago, is n monu-
ment of detective and legal skill which
made a great crime clear, by circumstan-
tial evidence, ani punished It. The late
case of Hayden, for the murder of the
| Stannard woman, and the impending case
of Abbott for murder at Groton, and, III
fact, the daily drift of our criminal cases,
show how largely justice is made de-
pendent on circumstantial evidence.
But there are two things which the pub
lie are prone to overlook when they
watch the processes of n criminal trial i'll
volving life, namely, the grave and some
times
DISTRESSING RESPONSIBILITIES
OF Judge and jury, and the long continued
efforts of generations of able jurists,
calling to their aid the past expert
ences of justice, to reduce the laws of
circumstantial evidence to what may not
inaptly be called an exact science. Upon
the due adjustment and valuation of such
evidence depend the rights of all parties
The science of testimony has developed
with civilization. The mennest criminal
at the bar to-day has more chance for
even-handed justice than even the rich or
great 900 years, or even 200 years, ago.
Justice based on scientific law is more
democratic than of old. For instance, the
inquisition in $50 years burnt 10000
,b .th,nnl, a.,ff fha,,,
witch, and in few years 900 of them
1855, at the trial of two women, said,
THAT there were snch creatures as
witches, he made no doubt at all" Sir
Thomas Browne, great physician and
scientist, believed in witches. and the
great lawyer Blackstone also, while
witchcraft did not cease to be a felony in
England till the reign of George IL. The
religious fanatics in Scotland cried ont
against such repeal as an insult to the
ancient law of God A multitude Of i'll
IL ocent men and women were killed i'll the
| Salem witchclaft excitement by testimony
which, under our present rules of law,
would never have been suffered to appear
i'll court. As late as 115i, in Scotland
witnesses were allowed to testify that
they had seen a ghost who told them
were to find the body, and that the ac-
cused were the murderers. Imagine
Chief Justice Gray in capital trial al
lowing a man TO testify that n spirit had
| told him that the prisoner WAS guilty
OF course the ghostly mockery of justice
| by duel, by causing the accused to walk
over red-hot bars, to be thrown into
wHter, to touch corpse which would
bleed if it was murderer's touch, or to
allow the accused to go free if it did not
bleed, are relics Of barbarism which have
vanished from our courts. Testimony
has grown less bloOdthirsty, and is more
patient and tolerant toward the prisoner.
1t was said that the French naturalist,
CIvier, from a single fossil bone, could
describe the structure and habits Of ex-
tinct races of animals But bones neither
lie nor mistake, while witnesses do both,
and no court is infallible. The cases are
-,-,rae,vu5 un record to show that the
sense cannot be implicitly relied on even
when the veracity Of the witness is un-
questionable. In cases of highway rob-
berry q mans face has been repeatedly
sworn to from the glimpse got from light
of gun or pistol flash, whereas accurate
experiment always shows the thing to be
impossible. In case of theft, woman
swore n certain gown was hers: being
asked by n juryman to try it on, it was
found not to fit at all, and she confessed
her mistake. The fact was that the
prisoner had stolen the gown from 3
neighbor, though this was found out
only after the ucGuitial Another woman,
being robbed, swore II certain blnck
pocketbook, found on Il man arrested foi
the crime, was hers, which would have
sent him to the gallows, had not n coun
tryman found another black pocketboof
while reapiug, and, hastening to the trial
the same witness finding all, and her very
money, safe, confessed she was mistaken
and the accused went fres. A signature
to certain deed was sworn to by re
spectacle and honest parties as Lort
Eldon's, but Lord Eldon came into cour
and swore that he never attested n deet
in his life In
CELEBRATED SCOTCH TRIAL,
for forgery, intricate and far-reaching
and which involved the title to one of th'
best estates il the realm, half n dozeI
cngravers swore that certain numerous
letters were written by different persons
though the prisoner afterward confessc,
he wrote them all. His conviction wa
partly insured by sharp lawyer noting
III all the documents, certain words wer
curiously missrelled, and on the prisonC
beng required, III open court, to writ
these words. he misspelled them rs the,
we're written down i'll documents purport
ing to have been penncd by many differ
cnt persons, living even IN half a dozel
, different generations. In murder trial
piece of rope, found near the victim
, was sworn to as the same kind of rope II
, piece found in possession of the nc
cused, bit of testimony which woul
, have hung him had not ropo-maker eA
, amined and testified that one piece wa
twisted to the right while the other wa
| twisted to the left half-dozen witnes
, ses swore that they saw certain pcrso
at certain hour of the clock. Bein
asked to say what time it was by cloc
in the court room, not one of them coul
: tell. This was n case of downright lyin
< to prove an aiiGi. An eminent Enghs
D lawyer swore positively to two men wh'
he said robbed him in broad daylight.
r was proved that at the time of the robber
Q they were SO far off us to make the thin
! impossible. Shortly after. the true rol
:. bers were taken, with the stolen goods @
l. them. The prosecutor then confessed h
: mistake, and is said to have given
Il money value to the men he came ver
Il near sending TO the gallows Besides, n
q cuscd persons often behaved very strang
!. ly, even when innocent. Some run AVA,
:, which, in olden times, was held SO sure
t proof of guilt that i'll England, i'll cases
is felony and treason, flight carried forfei
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