The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-08

tuQT0SA Ot tAlG d6Ga ANNShSCs A@N~~NtAA Marsh Rice, in September. 1900. has perhaps occasioned an interest more widespread than that aroused by any American criminal case within gem eration. This is due not only to the many peculiar characteristics of the crime. and of surrounding ctrcum- stances, but to the multiplicity of in- genious expedients resoTted to by the defendant and his attorneys to put off the carrying out of sentence, the per- slstency of which has drawn new at tention to the wide divergence of Eng fish and United State procedure in similar matters.
 Since Patrick's conviction there have been inteposed between him and the electric chair the barriers of appeal after appeal, necessitating second passing of sentence. The condemned lawyer is now safe until March 1s by sreprieve of Governor Higgins, grant, ed to allow the introduction of alleged new and important evidence, the re- quest of Patrick's counsel having been concurred in by District Attorney Jer- ome.
 Patrick was arrested October 1, 1900, almost six years having passed since he was first accused of murder and forgery He has been in the Sing Sing death cell since April 2 1902. Such a delay would be impossible under Brit ish law. Had the lawyer been con- victed in England. either he would have been executed long ago. or would now be serving a commuted sentence. For the convicted murderer on English soil there Is but one hope-cIemency at the hands of the Home Secretary. There is no court of appeals, no legal machfn- cry by means of which the stroke of fate can be averted.
 Tn the case of Patrick there are other e a.1 difference of medical opinion. predomi- nant among these being the tumble of contradictory confessions made by Charles F. Jones, the shambling valet of the aged William Marsh Rice, who was in his dotage and apparently at the mercy of any one. Patrick learned of the old mans wealth and weak mindedness by being counsel in Texas lawsuit in which Rice was involved. !, He wormed his way into the acauaint- i ance of Jones. until the latter never | of strongly self-assertive disposition. | become his tool Patrick posed as 1 Rice's attorney. As matter of fact. 1 the scheming lawyer never exchanged l a word with the senile millionaire. Rice
 saw him only once. then catching a | glimpse of him in the hallway of the
 Rice house. and asking. Who Is that
 man with the red hair?''
 1 Several days prior to Rice's death
 Jones. who. after his and Patrick's ar- 1 rest, turned States evidence. swore that
 the lawyer gave the old man tablets | of a grayish color. A few days later 1 the valet said. at Patrick's direction. he l administered dose of what seemed to 1 be salts from a bottle. Upon the fol- lowing day Patrick came to the house In response to a telephone message from I Jones. He asked for a bottle and 1 sponge-aIl this according to Jones's l third confession-and when the valet
 approached the sick room afterward
 Patrick was leaning over the bed, a i towel twisted Into cone covering the
 old mans face. Jones said he tiptoed
 away from the threshold, Patrick leav-
 ing without knowing he had been seen
 An hour or two later the valet found
 Rice dead. Patrick was notified by
 telephone; he in turn notified the coro-
 ner. who, after an official autopsy
 found that death had been due to nat
 ural causes. The body was then em-
 balmed by Patrick's order.
 One of the greatest writers upon medical jurisprudence and toxicology
 Johann Ludwig Casper, whose classical
 work upon forensic medicine is today
 the best, saws: Tn the present inn perilled condition of the matter we ! must. alas! confess that the diagnosis
 of death from chloroform is to be de- l termined rather than from the cir cumstances preceding death from the l appearances found in the body In
 the case of Rice. not only is there a
 very grave doubt whether he was alive
 when 1t is alleged that the cone was
 placed over his face by Jones and
 afterwards found in the same posi- | ton, but had 1t really been placed
 where he said it was and left there is
 little doubt that it would have tumbled | off in the struggles and movements
 which as rule take place. 1 "A phase of the case which is of the 1 greatest interest to me is the out rageous testimony of the valet Jones
 l wish to emphasize the familiar in- 1 fiuence of suggestion in inducing people not only to make contradictory confes- sions but under certain duress to ab- | solutely invent fictitious occurrences, | without regard to the conseuuences | either to themselves or others A symptom known to the students of mental isease. which consists In the | invention of fantastic and boastful lies | is only too common in weak minded persons, and it does not require an ex- | treme stretch of imagination to con- ceive how Jones could have, through
 the influence of those about him, and l with the fear of punishment himself readily aceepted a story which had been prepared for him. His subsequent variation of the telling and the forma" l ton of stillborn resolutions to do what is right under the influence of tenn | porary workings of conscience, which l were, however, succeeded by a fresh | plunge into the abyss of falsehood are | perfectly reasonable and can br appre- | ciated h ystudents of mental disease. .
 Doubt us to the Better System. | Attorneys on this side of the water are hv no means aereed whether the | cr1fGh of | ducting capital cases is more product l i've of unfairness in the long run. A l lawyer of the New York bar, who | probably, has been interested in as | many prominent criminal cases during | the last ten years as any practition CT | in the country, remarked during the
 Patrick trial: "A murder trial is. after 1 all. just live fox chasing, only in | America we catch the quarry. let It
 get loose for another short dash. and
 then perhaps it slips away altogether | from the hounds in the loung run. Tn 1 England. when the game is run tu
 cover there is either a quick kill or
 equally quick mercy"
 America criminal records. during l the past few years. contain numerous
 instances of sentences delayed or ut
 terly annulled Notable examples are
 the securing of a new trial for Roland
 B. Molineux. once convicted for the l killing of Mrs. Kate Adams by poisone I
 promo -seltzer. Molineux. too, occuui Ad l a cell for many months in the death house at Sing Sing He is a free man
 today. Three trials had Dr. Samuel J ! Kennedy. once convicted Of murderine 1 Dolly Reynolds In the Grand Hotel 1 The latter two resulted in disagreed i juries. and the Staten Island dentist now lives unterrihed by fear of fur
 ther prosecution. His release made a