The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-04
INNOCENTs CONVICTED.
Famous Cases Based on Circumstantlal
Evidence.
From the Boston Globe.

Famous Cases Based on Circumstantial
Evidence.
From the Boston Globe.
The people OF this section of the country
are soon to see probably another long and
hard fought trial for murder
The Borden affair is another In the long
list of cases which rests almost entirely on
circumstsntiaI evidence.
The legal records of the world are filled
this sort Of evidence.
Nearly 100 innocent persons have been
condemned and executed or have suffered
long terms of imprisonment on evidence
which after a term Of years have been
found to be false and so iimsy that IL
would hardly seem possible that Intelligent
men could have been found to accept it,
much less to visit person with the severest
penalty known to Law because Of It.
Nor have the officers of the law and the
juries been the only ones 10 be deceived.
The public, the immediate friends of the
accused. and even the accused themselves,
have been convinced that the crime had
been committed by them as alleged.
Nor is one country the superior of another,
nor one time much the superior OF another
except in the difference and severity of the
punishmsnts inflicted. America has Seen
MANY YINNoCENT PERSONS EXECUTED.
England has not been behind, and France,
spain, Holland, Germany and Denmark
have furnished 80 many and such horrible
instances of the miscarriage of justice that
it would seem as if authority had really
cared less to establish guilt than to deal out
penalties.
The case Of the Bourns in Vermont too
well known to need much oomment). in
which circumstances were 30 strongly
against she accused that he confessed the
murder, and which Wilkie Collins has made
the basis and supersJructure Of one of his
stories, and the case Of the Yorkshire miller
which George Eliot used in her "Silas
Marner," are cases so striking that it would
seem as IL they should have powerful effect
in influencing public opinion to see the ex-
treme unreliability of this class of testi,
mony.
But one Of the strangest Of all is, perhaps,
that Of the Danish clergy man, Soren Ovist
Here was q man who had been known many
years as one leading an honest, kindly and
upright life. beloved and respected by all
who knew him.
His servant disappears and the master is
arrested, charged with the murder Of the
man, tried, condemned aud executed.
The principal witness against tie clergy
man was abe brother of the servant, and 10
support him he had eight others who Wit
messed different circumstances connected
with the case.
The corpse was found and identified, and
APPARENTLY NOTHING WAS LEEr
updone to secure a fair, Impartial and shor-
ough trial or the case.
Yet twenty-five years after the good
Mo hiaCraCafpI daa fh nd AZ ~ a.. "a,
of the principal witness, it was found that
the man had not been killed, was not even
dead; that all the witnesses were mistak ken {;
that they had been the dupes Of a clever
villain, who hal convinced them by his
adroit management of circumstances and
handling Of small matters Incident to the
case, and that Soren Ovist's only contribu-
ton TO the affair was hasty temper and a
quarrel with the servant, which had ended
with the master beating the man with a
spaks.
But 80 strong was the mass of evidence
presented that the accused broke down con-
fessed that be believed that he had killed
the man and buried him, as adduced at the
trial, but claimed that it had been done
while in a fit of somnambulism, to which
he was subject.
Yet they were all wrong, the court, the
jury, the public and the prisoner were the
victims of this shrewd scoundrel, who had
laid che plot from the beginning, even the
brothers hiring out to Soren being but a
part Of the plot.
But perhaps one Of the strongest
illustrations of the weakness Of ciroum-
stautial evidence, or rather the casa with
which false differences ara drawn from un-
disputed circumstances, Is the use which
novelists, both great and small, make Of
the circumstances the most simple In them
selves and their combinations.
Yet the novelists, even the most unskill-
full and extravagant have rather
KEPT WITHIN THE BOUNDS
allowed by court records and grave and
heavy sheepskin-bound volumes.
As instances of the ease with which cir
cumstancee may be manufactured TO 1T the
design OF piotter may be Cited the case of
the old woman Of bhe Place st. Micnel. Paris.
who was found dead in bod, wounded in
many places with look Of hair In one
hand, a neck-handkerchief Ia the other and
a blood-stained knife in the middle of the
floor Of the bedroom.
The handkerchief, the look Of hair and tho
knife belonged TO her boy servant, who was
seized. tried, made under torture 70 confess
and TO suffer capital punishment
The real murderer was a chum Of the
servants, who had stolen the combinRs from
the boys hair, stolen his knife. stolen bis
handkerchief, killed the old woman, stolen
her money aud then stolen his ohum's life,
Another case was that OF a lady who. CON
oeiving spite against her maid, placed In
her box some jewels, called the officers, who
instituted a search, found the Jewels and
aided in the conviction Of the girl.
As this happened in the good old DAYS
when death was the punishment for theft
and the poor girl was executed.
Years after the mistress was taken for an
other crime, and just before her death con-
fsssed to the successful plot against the girl.
Another for trivial motive, was that OF
the youth caught a. was supposed. stealing