Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1881-08-08
A Lawyers Story.

never ! never
The speaker was distinguished Grim
inal lawyer of nearly forty years active
practice and whose fame extended far
beyond the limits of his own state.
We had been discussing recent case
celebre in which, upon purely circum-
stantial evidence, a man had been con-
victed of an atrocious murder, although
many of those most familiar with the
circumstances of the case entertained
the gravest doubts of the justice of his
conviction, and had been swung off into
eternity, protesting with his last breath
his absolute innocence and calling upon
God to send his soul straightway to hell
if he was not telling the truth.
AS most of our party were lawyers,
the conversation, naturally enough.
drifted into discussion of the dangers
arising from convicting accused persons,
whose mouths closed, upon purely Cir
cumstantial evidence, in the absence of
any direct and positive proof of guilt,
and case after case was cited, In which,
after conviction and execution, the en-
tire innocence of the supposed culprit
had been clearly demonstrated. Most
of the laymen present agreed with the
distinguished lawyer, whose very posi-
tive expression of opinion has been
quoted, while the majority of the law
yers are noted when advocating their
own side of any question, that justice
could never miscarry when careful
judges guard against the possibility of
unsafe verdicts by refusing to permit a
conviction until every link in the chain
of circumstantial evidence has been es-
tablished beyond doubt and the whole
chain been made so complete and per-
feet as to leave no room for consistent
hypothesis OF innocence.
"The first murder case | ever tried,
said one of them, "was stranger than
fiction, as you will admit, and is quite
as remarkable as any of the cases you
have referred to where innocent men
have been wrongfully convicted upon
circumstantial evidence. 1t ought to
have been reported as an example of the
unreliability of the direct and positive
proof of eye-witnesses who tell what
they believe to be the truth"
He then related what was certainly a
most remarkable and dramatic trial.
and which constitutes fair offset to
some of the memorable cases to be found
in every work on circumstantial evil
dence. The narrative produced SO
strong an impression on my own mind
that subsequently, with his consent,
put it into the following shape, having
first carefully compared it with his notes
of testimony taken upon the trial of the
case. 1t can be relied upon as absolute
ly correct, with the exception that | have
used fictitious names, for reasons which
will readily be appreciated when it il
known that most of the actors in the
drama are still living.
One winter evening about s o'clock
in the early days of the war, in th'
quiet little town of -, while patroll
ing the streets to pick up straggler'
from the camp on the outskirts of th'
town, Corporal Julius Fry was shot ant
killed by one of three men of bad char
acter, who were in company. and upol
terms of enmity with the soldiers. Tn
men were arrested, committed to prison
and brought to trial at the next term o
court. Two of them were gamblers an
desperadoes, and supposed to have NOR
than once had their hands stained wit
human blood. The third, whom l shal
call Short. though bearing an unenvia
BILE reputation, was regarded as one ur
likely to slay fellow-man except unde
compulsion of circumstances. On az
count of the character of the men, th
trouble they had already brought upo
quiet, law-abiding citizens, the sent
ment of the whole community wa
,, strongly against them.
!, In order to clearly understand tt
r force of the testimony given upon tt
trial and the subsequent result. it is in
S portant to bear in mind the physical p
e culiarities, dress and general appearan'
t of the three prisoners.
Short was a small man, of not mo
than five feet six inches in height, sle
d der, weighing scarcely l30 pounds, wi
It bright. fery-red hair and side-whiske1
and, at the time of the murder, wore
g white felt hat and an old light-bl
e army overcoat.
II Ryan was fully six feet in height,
robust frame, black hair and moustact
" dressed in dark clothes and wore bla
% Derby hat.
Il Grey was heavy, broad-shoulder
d man of medium height. weighing full
200 pounds, with full black bea
.. reaching nearly to his waist. But
r the evidence subsequently showed th
" y be had not fred the first shot, it is U
lg necessary to describe his appearar
n more minutely.