The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-07-31

Juries Shoud he Very sautso,~ in Rem
dersns i'm Ca-~ Where the
Evidence - CSrcum~tanrfal - In
~tanccs in Which Persons uer.
Wronsfuliy Convicted.

suiIy Convicted.
From the Brooklyn Citizen.
That circum~tantiai ey!deuc. has M.
the moose around the necks ~ lnnn-e-,
men and that IL has sent innocent men
TO prison viii be admitted RALLY
enough.
\ Young man had been surprise.
while in the sleeping rom .. he
head Of the family. and had escaped oy
jumping through a window. H = :
pursued. bur got away.
Ro hours later a stranger in the
city was arrested The man and h.s
vile, who saw ham. positively .deati-
fed the young man. IS did those who
mad Joinei N the pursuit..
/" his attorney he persisted In u.o-
testing his 3nisocence, but could {.
recount for himself al the time tire
crime MAS committed. except by say
inG he % a long walk 10 IN. c!tv.
Inc attorney. who At first believed his
c!4ent guilty. locked up his record and
became convinced that the young man
was innocent. but his conviction xa-in-
I'd . f~ocegoac conclusion.
One day the lawyer me. n man IN
the street whom he mistook for mis-
client. Upon asking him how he had
obtained bond. the stranger replied
mat the lawyer evidently mist ok him
FOR some one else.
Al idea struck thu lawyer. The
Stranger looked rs though he VS. Il
h2rd lAck, ami a proposition 20 lit -
the couT. .oom during he ;r.al vas
readily accepted. The lawyer g n cal
I'd the double until the case was called
Then he had the real prisof er i: he
hind him. Thera he could not Ue ) I'll.
The double was seated i'll he ~rri>oa-
er's dock.
Every witness identified the man
positively, and the prosecuting artu--
ney .ookef fully satisfied vnHl re
real prisoner was put on the stand
Subsequently a convicted burglar made
q confession and among the Grim : o.
his commission was the one with which
this client had been charged.
In 1870 John Maley OF H~arrisville. W.
Va, was sentenced 10 life imprisonment
for numbering his wife with arsenic.
Twenty Years afterward it was ACCT
dentally discovered that the poison
was given &c Mrs. Malcy by the servan.
through a mistake for medicine am
that, frightened by the result. she per-
mitted Maley to be convicted.
In June, 1885. John Crow mystec-
iOuSly disappeared from Il little town IN
Michigan. 1t was supposed that ne had
been murdered and suspicion fell
pom John Van Nieman, a brOther-in-
law of the missing man.
Circumstantial evidence governed
the prosecution of Van Nieman and
he was convicted and sentenced to .lfe
imprisonment. He served ten years
in the jackson prison, Michigan.
Crow, in his wandering about tn:
world one day happened to read in an
old newspaper the story of his murder
by John Van Nieman. Thereupon in
April, 1894. he set about TO get Van
Nieman out of the Jackson peniten-
tiary. AS already stated, the unfortun-
ate man served ten years.
George Nelson, Il freScO painter, Lad
the pleasure of spending two years
in the San Quentin, Cal. prison because
his voice sounded like that Of "A rob-
Der named Dorsey. He was charged
with robbery and attempted to prove
an alibi by a Swede and his wifi, N
whose place he secured his supper.
Through fear of being implicated in the
crime the Swede and his wife denied
that they had eve set eyes upon
Nelson.
Upon circumstantial eviden"e Il Sa-
cramento jury convicted him II
he was sentenced 10 ten years i'm
pTisonment. TWO years afterwards Tvs"
men. Shin and Dorsey were arrested
in the east and brought back 10 he
coast. II had been discovered 'h1.
hey, instead Of Nelson. had committed
the robbery.
w. F. Harmon. a Young inventor OF
San Francisco. spent four years across
the bay as a penalty for the forgery Of
Louis l.. Trowbridge. an ~all-rDunl
crook. When Trowbridge was in -.
Louis IN 1893 he was inform d that
Harmon was serving time Tor his
crime. He worried owe the matter
and finally gave himself up. However,
this did Harmon little good. for hi
term had expired Il month previous.