Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-01-03
ADDISON COUNTY COURT.
Criminal Cases Stin Occupying the Time
of Judge and Jury. IL

of Judge and Jury. IL
When we went to press last week the
case of State VS.. Mary Dumas had L
been begun. This was, from the nature
of the charge, the most important case
so far tried or likely to be tried this term.
The respondent Is an unmarried woman,
2S years old, and lives in GRANVILLE with
her mother and several brothers aid sis
tiers, and they are in rather poor circum-
stances. The woman was charged with
infanticide, and the claim of the state
was that early on the morning of July
81 last she gave birth to an illegitimate
living male child and that the child died
soon after birth from neglect or violence
on the part of the mother. 1t was shown
that the child was found in bed with the
mother at about s o'clock on that Sun
day morning, wrapped in some outing
flannel and that it had a depression on
the back of the head. The health officer
of Granville became suspicious and re-
fused to grant burial permit. An
autopsy was held, DR.. w. d. Huntington
of Rochester using the scalpel, and it
was found that besides the depression in
the skull three small blood spots were
found under the scalp, indicating
violence. There was a considerable
mass of medical evidence put in to show
that the child was alive at birth, and
still other medical evidence tending to
show the contrary. The defense ad-
mitted the birth of the child and its
illegitimacy, but claimed that it was
neither born alive nor that if it had been
was it killed by either the violence or
the neglect of the mother. On the other
hand it was claimed that the birth was a
premature one caused presumably by an
injury received three days before, when
a ten -year-od sister of the woman fell
upon her from the limb of a apple tree
and knocked her down, then falling
upon her in such a way as to cause the
probable premature delivery The young
woman took the stand for herself and
made a fairly good witness. She claim
! ed that she was unconscious at the time
| the child was born and knew rothing of
what had happened for several hours
after the birth, for which reason she did
not cry out for help to the other inmates
of the house.
This case took up most of the time of
the court from Thursday forenoon at
/ l0;30 o'clock. when the testimony was
completed with the evidence of the re-
spOrlent. When court adjourned that
mo ng it vas until o'clock on Mon
day, but Judge Watson unfortunately got
side tracked in Burlington and the court
did not resume work until o'clock
Tuesday morning, the assistant judges
adjOurning it until that time on teie-
graphic directions from His Honor.
Court opened promptly on Tuesday
morning at the hour named and the con-
sideration of the alleged infanticide case
was resumed, with only the arguments,
the charge of the court and the YER
diet of the jury.
States Attorney Donoway. who had
conducted the case unaided for the prose
cution, opened and closed the case for
that side, and Judge Bliss, who had like
wise managed the defense without
assistance, made the only plea for the re-
spondent. These two lawyers had put
up a strong fight for their respective
sides and their skilltul handling of the
case was very favorably commented
upon. They were limited to an hour on
a side for their pleas and neither attorney
took all the time allowed.
Judge Watson made a more than
usually exhaustive charge to the Jury
and explained the law bearing on the
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