New Britain herald., 1914-04-25
Murders and Public Opinion.
(London Times )

(London Times.)
 Public feeling will be relieved by the news that counsel for the crown, acting on the suggestion of Justice Atkin, yesterday withdrew the charge made against John Starchfield of murdering his son in railway train on January 8. It is doubtful whether on the evidence the accused ought ever to have been brought to trial. The case will serve, however, in many respects to point its own moral. Sev- eral murders of recent years have presented similar difficulties to the police, and it is not surprising that thousands of persons with a keen sense of justice and a dislike of un-
 nysreries should form the)r own theories and indulge their own specu1ations. It is a wholesome sign of proper public sentiment, so long as that sentiment is kept within rea- sonable bounds. The danger is of hindering instead of assisting the course of justice. Indignation has been stirred, no doubt, by the cumu- lative effect of a number of notable crimes for which no convictions have been obtained.
 In many instances the press gives substantial aid to the police, and thus helps materially toward just conviction where, as in most train murders, only circumstantia1 evil dence is available. Yet. valuable as this assistance may be, it has it's dan gers, and one of these dangers was exemplified in the Starchfield case. When the horror of a murder sinks into the minds of persons with a nervous temperament they are apt hastily to respond to calls for
 evidence made through the news papers. For the moment their 1oath- ing of the crime and their instinct for the protection of society over sway their reason; they volunteer to become witness of occurrences which are distorted, if not wholly in- vented by their imagination.
 When. about the middle of Jan- uary no clew had been found to the
 murderer of the boy Starchfield, theory after theory was sent to Scotland Yard by amateur detec- tives, and any man who was seen with a boy on the evening of Jan- uary was In peril of becoming the victim of a hue-and-cry. When at last the case came for trial at the central court, the prosecution was constrained to rely for Identification of the prisoner on three witnesses. Two of these admitted that they had never seen the prisoner before the day of the crime, and one of them confessed to having had no more than a passing glimpse of him on that day. The evidence of all three was out of harmony on various points. Each spoke of a man who had been wearing a different kind of hat, and each swore to having seen him at places which could not be reconciled with any plausible set of circum- stances. There will be general agree ment with the judges condemnation of the violation in the Starchficld case of all the principles on which such a coroner's inquest should be conducted. The sending of typewrit- ten copies of their dispositions to the witnesses for their signature. in vari- ous parts of London, and the ac- ceptance of alterations made in those deposftions in the witnesses own homes. disclose form of pro- cedure which Justice Atl<in was justi- fled in describing as a mockery Noth- ing less conducive to the administra- tion of justice could we'll be con-