The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-25
Linking Evidence
Use of Circumstances
in Locating a Criminal.


preme Court, writes in the New York
World as follows: There are two kinds
of proof admitted in judicial proceedings
direct or positive, as where a witness
to the fact in dispute testifies to it from
his own knowledge; and circumstanti4l,
where proof OF collateral facts is admit
ted because they afford presumptions
which tend 10 establish the fact in con-
troversy. In criminal cases there may
be no eyewitness Of the crime, but there
may be circumstances from which, If I'M
explained by the accused, the jury may
infer his guilt. But the jurors are in
structed that the circumstances must be
such as to produce a moral certainty OF
guilt and 10 exclude any other reasonable
hypothesis CircumStancial evidence is
considered by some TO be the most sta
isfactory species of proof because, by
its nature it is capable of producing the
highest degree Of moral certainty. Le-
gal writers give instances of conyicting
circumstances where there is homi-
eide by a pistol shot the wadding used
in the charge being part of a letter ad-
dressed to the prisoner and found upon
him, and where man is suddenly dead
in a room and another is found running
out in haste witha bloody sword, no 9TH
er person being in the room. Instances of
insufficient circumstantial evidence are
given-as where one has threatened an
other with death and the latter shortly
after is found dead by violence. Here
is no proof, but only conjecture; and
again where the guardian Of a wealthy
minor is found to have risen from a con-
dition of poverty to one of affluence, the
evidence not excluding the inference that
he might have been enriched by proper
means
Direct evidence-that is. the testimony
of alleged eye-witnesses of a fect-is gen.
orally called the best evidence but wit
nesses may be mistaken or may lie. On
the other hand, circumstances cannot lie
The only danger in that kind of proof is
that the minds which are called to con-
slider ii may not always be capable of
drawing the proper differences and de-
termining whether every reasonable
doubt or contrary hypothesis is excluded.
This delicate and important duty IS in
trusted TO ordinary juries, and sometimes
grave errors have resulted. OF course,
in many cases the plaineSt minds may
draw the same conclusions as the wiseSt
las where in cases of larceny the stolen
property is found upon the prisoner. or
where a watch is found gone from the
room on the departure of the prisoner,
no other having access in the interval;
or in a case Of homicide where stains Of
blood, marks of conflict and deadly
weapons recently used are found upon
the prisoner; or weber the prisoner, if ell
denies being at the scene of the crime
when it was committed. ought to be able
to prove that he was elsewhere, but does
not attempt to do SO. In all these cases
the probability of error may justly be
deemed excluded, but not with absolute
certainey. But the law even where hui
man life is involved. does not require
absolute certainty
Jurfes will sometimes convict upon
collection of trivial facts and sometimes
acquit in the fact of very convincing
proof. Warren the author of Ten
Thousand Year." gives the history Of a
trial for murder where the accused was
last seen with the missing man at night
armed and going to atwood; was found
afterward with gold and bank notes, hav-
ing been miserably poor before and his
victim having received a large sum of
money just before his disappearance; was
found wearing some, Of the victims
clothing; gave contradictory accounts
OF. which way the latter had gone after
leaving him, and was proved to have
said said to a party searching for the
body. Hes far more likely TO be found
in Stokesley Beck" Eleven years after
ward a skeleton identified by a mark as
that Of the missing man was discovered
in Stokesley Beck. The prisoner was &C
quilted.
On the other hand, the instance of mis-
taken convictions are numerous and dis
tressing. The same author cites Lord
Coke as instancing a case Of a gentle
man accused of numbering his neice. She
was heard to cry out, Uncle, do not
kill NET and soon after disappeared.
The uncle being required to produce her
and being unable to do SO, procured an
other girl to personate her but tbs fraud
was detected and this lent such color to
the other circumstances that he was con-
victed and executed. 1t was afterward
found that the neice was living And
Sir Matthew Hale mentions a case in
Staffordhsire where a man was accused
upon strong circumstances OF having
murdered a missing person and burned
him to ashes in an oven. He was exc
cuted, and a year later the missing man
returned Warren also cites the case OF
Ambrose Groyunet who, upon clrcum-
stantial evidence which It Is said really
appeared conclusive and irresistible. vas
gIbbeted yet by extraordinary circum-
stances survived his supposed execution
escaped TO foreign parts and there met
the very person for whom he had been
condemned 20 die. But the two latter
cases occurred at very early period
before the law required as the first proof
OF murder that the body OF the victim
be produced OF accounted for. In the
first case mentioned by Warren IL was
not until the discovery Of the body, elev-
en- years after the suspicion u crime.
that the accused could be placed on trial
Sir Matthew Hale relates another IN
stance Of erroneous conviction upon tfse
strongest kind Of presumtion. Il was in
the days when horse stealing was a cap
ital pnizhmentenhtialz ,cotSe-to-o. etaoo
fal offense and a man having been found
IN possession q stolen horse MAS con
demned and executed az Oxford Asslzes.