The herald., 1893-07-12
AN ASTONISHING LEGAL RCCLAIRCISSK-
MBNT.

In the trial OF Bentley for the murder
of his wife, the HERALD held steadily
that there was no evidence which would
convict Bentley of poisoning his spouse.
Judge Smith very properly, in our judg-
ment, made rulings which entitled
Bentley to new trial. When the case
came up yesterday morning the district
attorney. Mr.. H. G. Dillon, made the
following extraordinary delivery, on the
question as to whether the case should
be set down for new trial.
We quote verbatim, ct literatim, ct
punctuatim: "Since the case has been
"tried before 1 have been informed by
s'my associate counsel that the property
s'interests that were involved have been
''settled between the parties, and that
.those attorneys have been instructed
''to no further prosecute"
A little later the district attorney
stated: "The upshot of the matter is
"this: The houses OF Nordholt and
"Beptley have pooled their issues; and,
sin the pooling, there has been cool
ing OF tno NOrQnOlt DlOOQ.
Now, in the name of all the gods at
once, what has the cooling or heating o.
the Nordholt or Bentley bloods to do with
this issue of prosecution in which it is
charged, and with great grouadH, that
a poor old woman has been murdered
by poison? There is certainly nothing
in the "pooling of issues" go flippantly
referred to, that looks like anything but
compounding felony. If the case
called for dismissal there surely ought
to have been nothing OF this by-plsy.
If there were an agreement be-
tween the houses of Nordholt
and Bentley on purely monetary
considerations such development would
be strictly in the line OF compounding
felony. If the district attorney believed
that the case should have been dis
missed he certainly ought to have pre-
sented his motion on lines other than
those OF possibly felonious agreement
between the Nordholt and Bentley
houses ss to the distribution of the
dead woman's effects. Whatever doubt
or speculation that may attach to any
other parties to this litigation, there is
no question whatsoever that Mrs. Bent
ley is dead, and that poison was found
in her stomach. The HERALD enter
tanned grave doubts "a to whether
Bentley poisoned his wife, but we
were certsinly not prepared for such
an easy and degsge dismissal of the
whole matter. If the District Attorney
had simply entered a nolle prosequi, as
to the whole case, under the circum-
stances we should not have been sur
prlsed. But his asking for q dismissal
on the ground that the houses of Nord-
holt and Bentley had "pooled their
issues" on property matters, we confess
looks to us like compromising OF felony.
In this case the District Attorney was
confronted by proposition in which
silence was golden; and in which, even
in the present status of the white metal,
silver was at its worst at big discount.
Our distinguished fellow-citizen Judge
Smith, may be content with his remarks,
which, in substance, make the whole
case to turn on property considerations.
In our judgment, very few people will
take that view of the matter. The late
Mrs. Bentley was either poisoned or she
was not poisoned. In any event, the
property adjustment of the matter will
not determine in her case the fact of the
employment or unemployment OF cold
"pizen."