Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-06-01

The trial of the Malley boys, at New
Haven, for the murder of Jennie Cra-
mer last August, which attracted such
attention at the time, is drawing rapid
ly to close. The progress that has been
made allows Of moderately safe conjec-
turc rs to the result Such conjecture,
especially in legal circles, foreshadows
Il defeat for the state on the ground that
the proper links are lacking to connect
the prisoners with the revolving crime.
The state has proved, by competent
medical experts, whose testimony has
been spoken Of as rejecting honor on
the profession. that Jennie Cramer had
been forcibly outraged within forty
eight hours before death, and that the
cause of her death was arsenic poison
ing. The prosecution also produced
witnesses and testimony to fasten the
facts undeniably in the mind of every
follower of the proceedings that the pris-
oners and their accomplce, Blanche
Douglass, were the last ones seen in the
company of the Inflated girl when last
she was seen alive The chain of cir
cumstantial evidence is thus cunninrly
woven about them, complete in every
particular but the connecting link This,
in the opinion of the best juriSts who
have been watching the ease with in
tcrcst, is lacking. The moral guilt of
the accused is fastened upon them as
plainly as though they bore the brand
Of Cain upon their brows. But the fine
spun wires of technicalities, have been SO
deity woven as to prevent the compile
ton of the net, and the chances are
strongly in favor of these educated vii
lains going free.
This is unfortunate. Not only in re-
gard to this case, where two wealthy
hounds and their brazen-faced asso-
ciate are going unwhipped of justice,
but in the effect it will have upon the
general public. The laws delay and
legal entanglements will be called upon
to account for another judicial farce.
The effect upon the public mind will not
be good. The old cry that money and po-
wealth are omnipotent will receive an
other illustration that the very promi-
hence of the case will make the more
vivid.
The seed from the tree Of TECHNICAL
ty brings forth the unkempt and bitter
fruit of mob law. People become tired
of seeing criminals escape their just de-
serts and detiantly take the law into
their own hands and execute swift,
stern justice with a celebrity that some
times over-reaches itself.
This is not well. Slowly, but with
grim sureness, it is undermining the
corner stone of good government The
remedy is in a straighter road to Justice
through the ordained channels. II there
must be reyisions of the code before this
can be done the sooner they are made
the better Justice, not wealth or in
fnence, must reign supreme, otherwise
the day is not far distant when there
will come an overwhelming, unreason-
ing outburSt that will override all law
and order and drown the cries of the in
nocent with the shrieks of the guilty in
blind desire to right, with mighty
sacrifice, the wrong Of years. The pre-
tentative is yet in the hands of the peo-
Pile They must demand clearer OK
position of the principles for which
courts were established and less atten-
ton to the hair-splitting points of tech
uiralitv