The evening world., 1888-05-01

biiity-A Year and n Halt In the Tombs
VIII she be Granted n New Trinlt
The Court of Appeals. sitting in tho cham
Der usually occupied by the General Term of
of the Supreme Court to-day. listened to the
argument of William +. Howe on the appeal
of Chiara Cignarale for n new trial.
Assistant District e Attorney Mackenzie
Semple opposed the appeal, and the Judges
are expected to render their decision in ten
DAYS.
Antonio Cignarale and Chiara, his wife,
came to America five years ago. She was the
daughter of a fairly well-to-do tradesman and
he was a laborer. He becams a rngpicker
here. They lived in Mulberry street, and af-
forwards in Little Italy" in East One
Humid ed and Twelfth street. They had one
child-a little girl.
Mrs. Cignarale was delicate. but her hus-
band thought she ought to help him pick up
rags, and frequent q%uarrels were the result of
their poverty and difference of views regard
ing the duties of n wife.
After a year Antonio d'Andrea, a young
man of about the same age as Mrs. Cignarale.
came from their old home In Italy to New
York and found board with the Cignarales.
he slN lUt uuhTItlS DtlNbtn NlRuhTult hul
wife, and finally he and Chiara left the hus-
band and child and went to 1--we together in
Forsyth street and afterwards in Elizabeth
street.
After a time a peace was patched up and
Chiara lived with her husband in One Hun
dred and Tenth street. But the peace was
not real, and on Oct. 20, 1886, while Cignarale
was loungirg up First avenue whistling. and
with his hands III his pockets. his wife stole
along behind him with a revolver under her
shawl.
just above One Hundred and Tenth street
she fired two shots at him. He ran n block,
then described IA half circle i'll the street,
threw up his arms and. crying, 'Oh, Holy
Virgin y fell dead at the corner of One Hun
dred and Twelfth street.
A crowd assembled. The woman, going
more slowly, but still filled with thoughts of
murder, followed, and fingered about the
PROSTATE husband. She still held the smok-
ing pistol, cooked, in her hand.
Arrest followed, and on March 2, 1887,
having been arraigned before Recorder
gree, the woman pleaded guilty of murder i'll
the second degree. This plea was accepted
by the District-Attorney and the Court.
On March 20, 1887, Mr.. Howe appeared in
Chiara Cignarale knew SO little English that
she had assented to a plea of guilty unknow-
ingly that she was rs innocent as a newborn
babe and was dying of fright in the Tombs
lest ner ignorance buOulu seal ner uedtn war
rant.
TIL Court permitted the withdrawal of the
plea, and ON May %, 1887, Mrs. Cignarale was
put ON trial for murder in the first degree.
On May n n verdict of guilty was rendered
and the woman was sentenced by Recorder
Smyth to be hanged on July %, 1887.
Mr.. Howe moved for a stay of judgment
and new trial, which was denied.
Recently Antonio d'Andrea, the lover of
the wife, was tried as an a~ccomplice of Chiara
in the murder of her husband. He was ac-
quilted.
The grounds of the present appeal are that
the verdict of murder in the first degree was
against the weight of the evidence hat the
acceptance by Recorder Smyth of the plea OF
murder in the second degree constituted al
%acquittal of murder in the first degree, and
that Mrs. Cignarale having been once placed
in jeopardy of her life for murder in the first
degree and acquitted, a second trial for that
otfense was voiu.
All through the proceedings in her case
Mrs. Cignarale has been the object of much
sympathy and pity from tender hearted peo.
pie. For weeks it was daily reported that
she could not live twenty o hours. She
appeared. in court at the trial of D'Andrea,
wan and hollow-eyed, and tainted dead away
on one occasion in court. MIR. Howe con
stantly referred to her rs " that poor. dying
woman" She has been described as having
no knowledge of English. yet receives and
converses with callers in first rate English.
The appeal has been hanging fire since las
July, and should it be denied a new sentence
of death must be imposed.