Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1891-07-03

THE POPULAR VERDICT.
An Instance of How 1t Sometimes IL Al
Fault.

An Instance OF How 1t Sometimes IL nj
Fault.
Judge Baldwin, with career of more
than forty years at the bar, tells the
following story:
Zone of the most remarkable cases
that has ever come to my notice." said
Judge Baldwin, was that of the two
Boorns, who were convicted years ago
in the supreme court of Vermont, in
Bennington county, of the murder of
Russell Colvin. 1t appears that Colvin,
oners was person of weak mind, and
was considered burdensome to the fam.
lily of the prisoners who were obliged
to support him; that ut the time of his
disappearance he was in distant field
where the prisoners were at work; that
a violent quarrel had broken out be-
tween them, and that one of them had
struck him severe blow on the back
of the head with club, which felled
him to the ground. Some suspicious
arose at the time that he was murdered,
and these suspicious were increased by
the finding of his hat in the same field
few months afterward
''These suspicious in process of time
subsidized, but later one of the neighbors
having repeatedly dreamed of the muir
der with great minuteness of circum-
stances, both in regard to the missing
mans death and the concealment of his
remains, the Boorns were vehemently
, accused and generally believed to be
search, the pocket knife of Colvin and a
button of his clothes were found in an
old open cellar in the same field in
which he had last been seen, and in a
hollow stump not many rods from it,
were discovered nails and a number OF
bones believed to be those of a man.
Just prior to their trials friends of
the Boorns said that the evidence against
them was too Enthusiastically plain for
them to longer hold out and urged them
to make a clean breast of the entire
matter holding that if they did so they
would undoubtedly get their sentence
of death-which was sure to be the re
suit of their trial-commuted to impris,
onment for life.
"The men were tried and sentenced
to be hanged. Their friends renewed
their request that they make full con-
fession. One of them finally complied
with the request, detailing long story
as to just how the murder had been
committed. The other confessed, bl t
with great reluctance and doggedness.
and would not go into details
'The one who had made the full con-
fession had the sentence of death COM
muted, while the sentence of the pen
atty of the law was ordered carried out
in the case of the other.
"As the day of the execution ap-
preached the doomed man made a dee
laration that he and his brother had
lied; lied outrageously; and that for his
part he would not risk facing his Maker
with so awful a lie upon his soul The
declaration was received simply as an
act of supreme cowardice in the face OF
death, and caused all but two or three
of the most intimate friends of the
maker of it to turn against him, SO plain
to their minds, and to the minds of the
entire community, was it that both mer
were guilty beyond all possible doubt
1.-THE last sunrise but one, for the
doomed man, was just flooding his Yer
mont home when who should appear al
the door but Russell Colvin-the mar
for the murder of whom Boorn was up
on the morrow to be executed.
1.-The explanation of the whole mat
ter" added Judge Baldwin, is simple
in its character.
"The two Boorns had jumped upor
Colvin in the field and beaten him. Hi
had escaped from them, leaving his ha
behind, and so overpowered was hi
with fear that he continued his fiigh
until he found himself in New Jersey
At the last moment he had learned tina
one of his prosecutors was about to b.
hanged as his murderer, and although
he had suffered great brutality at hi
hands, Colvin immediately hastene,
back to save the unlucky fellows neck
AS for the confessions which the Boorn
INDEPENDENTLY the full and yer.
explicit one-they were made simpl,
for one purpose, that of trying to saw
their necks Omaha Bee.
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