The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-25
THE oR1ME OF INNOCENCE. ="
How an Accused but Innocent PEI
son May Suffer in the Hands of II

THE CRIME OF INNOCENCE"
How an Accused but Innocent Per-
son May Suffer in the Hands of the
1 Law. ,-..
Frances Isabel Currie in the City Vigilant.
One of the impressions first received
concerning the government Of this COM
monwealth is one of admiration for the
breadth and fullness of its charity. A
man or woman who will visit the city
prison of New York, and learn exactly
what treatment is there received by un-
! tried prisoners will lose some of this early
admiration, and viii learn how the inten-
tion Of Just law may be perverted. One
| woman's story, which il a common one,
| will illustrate the need of reform:
She was a governess in this city, was
barely y years old, and had been living
in the house of a gentleman who engaged
her TO teach his daughters. One day one
! of her pupils complained Of having lost a
| valuable ring, and when search was made
for il il was discovered in drawer of
the governess' dressing case. She was
! accused of having stolen it. She protested
| that she had never seen the ring any
where, excepting upon the owners hand,
| but as she could not explain its presence
| in her drawer she was arrested, charged
with theft and imprisoned In the Tombs,
where she waited for her trial. This
young woman was poor, friendIess and a
stranger in our city. She knew nothing
of our laws and punishments, Ebut some
| where she had heard the fable that the
! law presumes all persons TO be innocent
until they have been. proved guilty She
endeavored to be brave and logical. even
in that dark hour, for her faith in
| the existence of human justice had
/ not yet been shaken. 1t soon began to
wayer. She knew the necessity of pun
! ishment for crime; but she doubted the
/ justice of imprisoning persons who were
! only accused and not convicted of wrong
in this stopping place for convicts. SHE
was afraid in prison, because she was
surrounded by people familiar with every
! otfense known in the category of crime.
All the women OF each corridor were
| forced to leave their cells every morning,
! and compelled to remain all day in a
common sitting room. While she was in
! the Tombs she had not one mouthful
| of solid food excepting bread, for she had
no money with which to purchase meals
| outside the prison. She had bread and
coffee for her breakfast, bread and soup
for her dinner and bread and tea for her
| supper. A convict in the state prison has
! his daily portion of meat, and has better
air and better sleep than have the inno-
cent men and women in the Tombs
! Our governesS had little mental or
]
other prisoners were placed in the cell
with her at night. AS each cot could hold
but one person, many prisoners were COM
! PEELED to sleep upon the stone floor of the
! building. The drunken cries and pro-
| family in this tomb of justice made night
! hideous. Among the coarsest cruelties
! perpetrated In the name of human charity
| are the visits of strangers to prisoners
who are waiting tobe tried. Our prisoner
was eager for the stigma of suspicion
to be removed from her, yet every day it
was perpetuated and advertised by
strangers who came and looked at
her, and from whom she had no
escape. People who saw the governess'
| face in the Tombs remembered her as n
! criminal, and not as one whom the law
presumed" to be innocent. Among those
who had visited her, and who doubtless
! desired to help her was the superintend-
emit of Sunday school. He came with
camera 10 take a picture of the Tombs
| sitting-room and all its unhappy occu-
pants. He wished to show this picture as
one OF set when he delivered a lecture
in his church on Crime aud It's Penal
4 ties" She covered her face and cried
out that she would not submit to such a
humiliation. He argued that if she were
innocent she need have no fear of having
her likeness seen in the house of God, and
when, in an unguarded moment, she un-
covered her face she was mstantlySphoto-
graphed.
When the day of her trial finally ar
rived she was not allowed to walk to the
court house, but was placed in the prison
van with white woman and negress,
both of whom had been convicted of in
famous crimes and who were going into
court to be sentenced She would have
cheerfully walked many miles to have es-
capped such ompanionship, but she had
no choice in this matter and so she rode
IN the Black Maria, while the boys in the
street ran after the strangely named We
hicle and derided the misera BILE creatures
inside. She was placed in an iron cage at
the back of the court room, where she
and her degraded associates waited to be
summoned before the bench. 1t was
pen fit for beasts in a menagerie
II was near an entrance to the
room, and every one who entered
there looked at the prisoners through the
iron grating Of the pen. 1t was perhaps
the worst of all the humiliations the ac-
cused woman had suffered. Her name
was called at last, and her trial begun.
AS she had no money to pay for legal
services, the court assigned her counsel.
Her employer and his daughter told the
story Of the ring. She had suffered from
so much injustice that she was beginning
to expect to be convicted, wheu her law
yer crosS-ques toned her pupil. Against
her will he made the girl admit that the
ring had fitted her finger loosely, and had
several times slipped from her hand and
been recovered. Little by little he drew
from her unwilling lips admissions that
she had sometimes visited the gov
erness' room without her knowl-
edge, and had often examined the con-
tents of her writing desk and dressing
case; and finally she acknowledged that
she had been engaged in this meddlesome
business an hour before she had missed
the ring. The girl was NOR titled by these
disclosures, but the cross questioning CON
tinued persistently, mercilessly, until she
broke down and admitted that she might
have lost it in her teachers drawer. In
addressing the jury the judge remarked
that he was surprised that the courts
time had been wasted by so f1imsy a
case, and he directed the jury to render
a verdict of acquittal, which was promptly
done.
1t will be seen that the city's prisoner
had to travel long and painful path be-
fore she found any protection, any con-
sideration, any justice; and yet in the
end it was admitted by judge, jury, and
even by her accuser, that there had never
been any evidence of guilt against her
Her suffering has not ended vet So long
as she lifts her face to the daylight peo-
Pile who see her will remember how she
al =. 80 l.