The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-04-04
Il CELEBRATED CASE,

The Kringe Murder Case Again Reversed
by the United states Supreme Court
Seven Times Tried and Convlcted--Final
Release From Sentence of Death.
WASHINGTON, April "A decision was
rendered by the United States Supreme
Court to-day in the interesting criminal case
of Charles F. Kringe plsintiffin error against
the State of Missouri, brought here upon
writ Of error from the Supreme Court in that
State. Kringe, the plaintiff in error, on JAN
uary 4, 1875, shot and killed a woman
named Dora Broemsen. At the March term
of the st. Louis Criminal Court, in the same
year, he was indicted for murder in the first
degree, tried, found guilty, and
sentenced to be hanged. Upon appeal
the judgment of the Criminal Court
was reversed and a new trial ordered.
Two more trials followed, in both ofEwhich
the Jury failed to agree. Upon the fourth
trial the prisoner made an agreement with
the States attorney to plead guilty to muir
der In the second degree upon condition
that the sentence be imprisonment for
period not longer than ten years. Under
this plea, however, he was sentenced to i'm
prisonment for twenty-five years. He again
appealed, and the judgment of the lower
Court was reversed by the Supreme Court,
and the cause second time remanded.
Upon his next trial the prisoner refused to
withdraw bis plea OF murder in the second
degree, or to make another plea. whereupon
the Court ordered plea of not guilty to be
entered for him, and he was again tried for
murder IN the first, found guilty,
and sentenced to death. He appealed
successfully to the Court of
Appeals and to the Supreme Court of the
State. In both of these tribunals the judg
ment and sentence of the Court below were
affirmed. The sentence was then ordered
to be executed February "a. 1882, but before
that time Judge Miller, of ths United States
Supreme Court, granted writ of error. and
the case was brought here for final review
under the Constitution and laws OF Missouri
in force at the time the offense was commit
ted and the indictment found. The pris-
oner could not be tried for murder In the
first degree after he had been convicted or
pleaded guilty to murder in the second de-
gree, but under the Constitution of 1875, az
construed by the Supreme Court of Missouri,
a person indicted for murder in the first de-
gree, and convicted or sentenced upon
a plea of guilty in the second degree.
may again be tried for murder in
the first degree, in case of appeal and re-
versal. Ii was c0ntended Ia all the Courts
by the prisoners counsel that the section of
the State Constitution of 1875, adopted sub
sequent to the finding of the indictment,
could not be applied to the prisoners case;
that it changed the punishment, that it was
an ex post facto law, and as such repugnsnt
10 the Constitution OF the United States.
Justice Miller in q long and carefully
written opinion rendered the decision sof
this Court, which may be briefly summed
up as follows: I'VE are of the opinion that
any law passed after the commission of an
offense which, in relation to that offense on
its consequences. alters the situation of a
party TO his disadvantage is an ex post facto
law. No one can be criminally punished in
this country except according to the law
prescribed for his government by the sover-
eign authority before the imputed offense
was committed, and which existed
as Law at the time. The provision oI
the Constitution of Missouri which denies
to the plaintiff in error the benefit which
the previous law gave him. acquittal of the
charge OF murder In the first degree or con