The Detroit times., 1910-11-14
CR|PPEN' SCOUNSEL
MADE BIC BLUNOER
English Lawyers Point To Convicted
Slayer as Victim of Legal
Bungling"

LONDON, Nov. IA victim OF
legal bungling," or worse still.
legal sacrifice" is the epitaph that
might properly be placed on the tomb
of DR.. n. II. Crippen, when he is
hanged on Nov. %, for the murder OF
his wife, Belle Elmore, in the opin-
ion of the big majority OF English
lawyers.
Nearly every one who followed the
famous murder case is convinced to-
day that somewhere along the line
of defense a great scandal is con
cealed
People everywhere are asking:
Was Crippen sacrificed that Ethel
Clare Leneve might go free?" When
Crippen was brought back to England
from Canada, eminent English law
yers, who will bet on anything, were
willing to wager TO l that he would
be acquitted. Crippen was found
guilty In less than half an hour. II is
hard TO find a parallel for such
startling reversal and there was no
development during the trial, accord
Ing to legal experts. that adequately
explains It.
Here are some OF the important
facts that are now being emphasized
10 support the charge of the Peculiar
conduct" of Crippen's defense
Solicitor Arthur Newton who pre-
pared Crippen's case, was we'll sup
piled with funds, believed TO have
been contributed by a leading news
paper, and was well able to hire the
best barrister in England, to conduct
the actual trial of the case. Instead
of doing so. Newton went outside of
London, and selected A. A. Tobln OF
Liverpool. Tobin is a provincial law
yer with a reputation made wholly
in the handling Of criminal cases. He
was handicapped by the methods OF
procedure at Old Bailey, as greatly
as a small town lawyer in America
would have been had he suddenly
been thrown into an important case
in New York city.
Solicitor Newton sent Barrister
Tobin into court with a case but half
prepared and the latter had but half
mastered even the slovenly case pre-
sented to him, when the trial opened.
When the trial of Miss Leneve,
Crippen's typist, was called, immedi-
ately following the conviction of Grip
pen, Newton. still in charge, employ
ed F. F. Smith, one of the ablest prac-
titioners at the English bar Smith
got Miss Leneve off with scarcely an
effort.
What the public wants TO know is
why Newton engaged an untried bar
rieter for Crippen, charged with mur-
der. and the best counsel that could
be obtained for Miss Leneve, charged
with the less serious offence of being
an accessory after the fact.
Newton prepared Miss Leneve's
case for Smith just as he had Grip
pens case for Tobin. And the very
first thing that Smith did-en the
strength OF the case Newton furnish.
ed him-was to refer to Crippen. in
the plainest Of terms. as "A murderer
beyond the shadow of question"
Making all due allowances for the
fact that Newton probably thought
he had done all he could for Crippen
and might as well admit that he was
murderer, If by so doing he could
benefit Miss Leneve, British lawyers
say he acted peculiarly. DR.. Grip
penis appeal was still pending and 1t
was not certain but his own solicitor
might be prejudicing his case.
When the court Of criminal appeals
sat to decide on a date for hearing
Crippen's appeal, Barrister Huntley
Jenkins, Crippen's junior counsel,
asked for all the time the bench
could allow him to prepare his case,
because his senior. Tobin Had UNI
expectedly withdrawn from the case"
The court was startled by this infor-
mation.
For a barrister TO withdraw from
murder case" said Justice Darling,
who was presiding, after his client
had been convicted and has a petition
still standing, is peculiar don't UNI
derstand it,
And the very next day the London
afternoon Times announced that To-
bin was not only going TO argue the
Crippen appeal, but that he had never
withdrawn from the case at all. What
all this tangle meant no one has yet
been able TO learn, but il is consid-
cred significant in connection with
all the other peculiar features of the
case.
But one thing is clear. there was
trouble OF some sort among Crippen's
defenders, and that II proved most
damaging to the unfortunate little
doctors interests.