The Sauk Centre herald., 1916-02-24
Ferreting Out
An Injustice
It Was All Done by a Young Law.
yer For an Attractive Widow.
By WILLARD BLAKEMAN

+ +
+ By WILLARD BLAKEMAN
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There has been the same develop
ment in Jurisprudence as in everything
else. From the time Of trial by battle
to trial by jury there has been CON
tinued progress. and. strange to say,
there are more reforms being consider
ed today than ever before. In other
words, confidence in the justice dis
pensed in our criminal courts is dying
out
The reason Of this is that legal JUS
tice is mechanical, and mechanical con-
trivances do not always work. The
many ingenious happenings that have
been conjured up by detective story
writer's have doubtless helped to make
people chary of believing in the infalli-
bility of courts. l, as a criminal law
yer, have often. by thought and energy
alone, turned the results of months
trial into an absurdity. In the first
place l judge Of an accused persons
innocence from intuition. After that
l think and work-principally the lat
ter.
l was in q criminal courtroom one
day when a young woman was con-
victed of having sent dose Of choral
nance and made up my mind from its
emotional expression that she was in
nocent You may sneer at judgment
from emotional expression. but 1t is
often the basis Of my efforts in my
profession. If you ask me how 1 can
tell innocence from guilt by such a
process | am forced to admit that l
cannot enlighten you.
The case | have referred to is this
Edith Atwater married. through the
influence of her mother, Martin Hay
wood, an elderly man. who was
wealthy. 1t was a May and December
match. and December soon froze the
sap Of May. The couple lived unhap-
PLY together. Haywood was chronic
invalid. and this with age made him
and would not have a doctor. constant
ly experimenting with remedies which
he procured himself.
The usual way for young wife to
get rid of an old husband is by poison.
and the favorite poison is arsenic.
The arsenic is always discovered in the
deceased's stomach, but this does not
seem to deter candidates for widow
hood from using it.
Old Haywood died under very suspi.,
ciOus circumstances. These were that
he was ill for some time and no doctor
was in attendance. No druggist in the
town where he lived and died had sold
him sny medicines. How could man
die without doctor or even druggist
to help him? The idea was preposter-
GUS. 1t was the neighbors who noticed
these incongruities. and their tongues
wagged at one another accordingly.
The rumors came to the knowledge Of
the police, who exhumed the body;
chemist made an analysis and found
arsenic.
This was sufficient evidence in itself
to convict his wife of having poisoned
him. But the courts. which are in
stituted to give all accused persons the
same chance before the law and use
the same machinery for the innocent
as for the guilty, insist upon putting
both through the legal mill. A person
brought up in refinement and morality
Is ground out through the same mill
as a Black Hand murderer who, by a
signal, informs a witness that If he
tells the truth his life will pay the
forfeit.
Mrs. Haywood was brought to trial.
and, as have said, was in the court
room when she was sentenced. She
had been convicted by the law ma
chine, twelve good and true men being
its spOkesmen. and was sentenced to
life imprisonment. l knew that she
was innocent How? have told you
that l cannot tell you this. Scoffers
have since said that mistook SYM
pathy for intuition. Let them scoff.
l will admit that l went away from
the courtroom with heavy heart and
that the agony of despair in that
beautiful face haunted me. 1t con-
tinued to haunt me. When at the end
Of several months found could not
get rid Of it l determined that l must
prove the innocence Of the subject Of
it or continue to suffer indefinitely.
determined to begin a work for which
l would receive no pecuniary compen-
satiOn.
Having procured copy of the evi-
dence in Mrs. HaywOod's case, after
studying it | made up my mind. not
withstanding the fact that Haywood