Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-06
Witnesses Are Called.

On nnd1ng them dead the officer re-
turned and gave Nine. Steinheil an I'M
true answer about the condition of her
parent and husband.
The hearing was then adjourned.
SaVagery of French Justice
Causes Sympathy for Prisoner
PARIS. November 6.-For the last three
days the public gaze has been fixed upon
Nine. Steinheil. Paris is hypnotized by
the thrilling duel now being fought in the
assize court.
1t is not an exaggeration to describe the
trial as duel, for SO far the presiding
magistrate. NJ. de Wales. has seemed less
judge than the mouthpiece of the pros
ecution. He has concentrated his energy
and ability upon the task of proving
Nine. Steinheil guilty.
His attitude is so Enthusiastically antago-.
nistic that the prisoner in uncomfortable
anguish and Indignation cried:
Cannot you hold the scales of justice
evenly balanced?"
Prisoner Is Assumed to Be Guilty.
1t is undeniable that NJ. de Wales con-
ducts the case as though the prisoner
already had been proved guilty instead of
convincing, not to say fiimsy, circumstan-
tial evidence. or rather hypothesis. Yet
NJ. de Wales is one of the most conscien-
tious, as he is certainly one OF the abiest,
Of the French magistrates.
1t Is the system that is wrong, not the
man. He merely is carrying out the trial
according to the procedure and tradition
of the French courts His bias is so man.
ifest that it has created a decided revul-
sion of feeling in favor of Nine. Stein
he'll.
Gil Bias voices the general sentiment in
an article protesting with generous
warmth against the barbarity of French
criminal procedure.
Condemns Court Procedure.
What ought to be the role of judgee"
asks the writer, George Price.
Common sense" he replies. He ought
to preside. The debate ought to set forth
with absolute impartiality the merits or
defects Of the evidence and arguments
adduced by the prosecution and by the
defense.
"In order to simplify matters our code
provides that all questions shall be asked
through MIN, while in other countries
the prosecution and defense share with
him the right to question witnesses and
others concerned in the case.
But If, in France, he thus acts for
both parties, he is morally bound to treat
both alike to avoid craftsmanship. If
he sides with one. the other is handi-
capped, md justice becomes a vain
word"
1t is precisely because NJ. De Wales
acts as though he were a sort of auXili-
airy counsel for the prosecution that the
current Of public opinion now is flowing
in favor of Nine. Steinheil.
Prosecutor Terribly Armed.
Rarely has a more poignant spectacle
been witnessed that the one presented
during the last three days in Seine assize
court. 1t is the spectacle of a judge.
terribly armed with the dispositions of
witnesses, as yet unheard in public; with
countless secret reports from the police,
with every scrap Of idle gossip. venomous
Islander and malicious insinuation that the
detective service has been able to I'M
earth and accumulate in tireless research
es lasting over a year, plying merci-
lessly, with insidiOus questions, brow
beating. morally torturing a mentally
slight woman. worn with anxiety. physi-
cally shattered by some fifteen months
close confinement In prison. but never
theess defending herself sing,e-handed
with indomitable courage against her
implacable adversary-who ought to be
merely her judge-ignorant of law and
legal procedure, and compelled to rely
upon memory, while her inquisitor has
mounds of documents, to which he re-
ferS constantly.
The duel is uneven. It is one between
an unarmed woman and man with a
loaded pistol.
Some of her remarks are pregnant with
pathos. as when, in reply to NJ. deValles'
comment that she was wandering from
the point, she sobbed:
do you expect an unhappy woman,
after year in prison, to have her ideas
In order?'
Reproach for Her Earnestness.
NJ. de Wales seems inclined to reproach
her for the vehemence of her protesta-
lions. but no one, surely. expects her to
listen to the judges accusing questions
without shrieking out her protest. If she
is really innocent, and so far nothing has
been produced to prove that she is guilty
the infamy of her private life does not
make her necessarily a murderess.
The keenest detectives in the French
service have probed her existence almost
from her birth. They have questioned
favorable of her past life, but not a scrap
Of real evidence has been discovered to
justify the belief she murdered her
mother and her husband.
The prosecutions case is based, con-
fessedly, on the supposition that she COM
mitted the crime in order to be free to
marry her lover. Maurice Borderel. Even
this hypothesis is shattered by Borderel
himself
"She knew almost from the beginning
Of our relations" he has testified, that
for family reason l would not marry her
in any circumstances, and that If she
wished to keep me as a friend she must
safeguard her position I'm society by
tanning her husband by her side. If the
accusation of Nine. Steinheil is based
upon the idea that she murdered him to
be free to marry me 1t crumbles to the
ground"
Sole Motive Is Untenable.
Thus the sole motive upon which the
prosecution hinges is proved TO be I'M
tenable. The case against her Is so weak,