New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
Women Score
An-Male jury
InMurder Case
Declare California Fails te
Give Accused Trial by
Her Peers
By Sarah Addington

NOR the first time since the women
of California have had the vote
woman is on trial in the state
charged with murder. Miss Marie Pin
zor Edwards, who shot State Senator
Henry H. Lyon. is now facing death in
the Superior Court Of Los Angeles.
And although women have been serv-
ing on juries and in other judicial ca
pacities in California for several years
Miss Edwards is to be tried before
jury composed exclusively of men-a
strange reversal of circumstance that
gives feminism a backward twist and
brings up afresh the question of wom-
en- jurors.
Should women serve on jury when
the fate Of a woman is at stake? Will
women jurors be less lenient to women
lawbreakers than men would?
What answers the women of Cali
fornia make to those questions, and
what they think about the case of Miss
Edwards and her man jury, are not
kr own in provincial New York. But
there are women here who view the
Edwards case with indignation. One
OF these is Mrs. Clarice Baright, lawyer
and suffragist, who insists that the
absence of women on Miss Edwards's
jury is "absoiutely wrong and unfair"
Mrs. Baright, who was the first wom-
an in New York state to be admitted
to the State Bar Association, is par
ticularly interested in law as it affects
women and children. and has always
spoken in Enthusiastically emphatic tones
for the participation of women in pub
lie affairs.
But" she warns. Eve women must
not offer ourselves as wares for every
job in the world just because we think
that women ought to be admitted every
where. We ought not to clamor for
positions that we are not fitted to FILL
and shrek for recognition in unknown
fields. Women can, however, render
important public service, and jury duty,
especially where women are on trial, is
one function that women can and
ought to perform"
On the grounds of justice, rather
than those of feminism. Mrs. Baright
bases her contention.
Miss Edwards has killed a man she
loved" she said, who, she says, had
promised to marry her. She has passed
through an emotional crisis such as
women only could thoroughly appreci-
ate and understand. Murder is never
Justltiable. bur given certain set OF
facts it is sometimes Understandable.
Nobody bur a woman could possibly
search that woman's soul. Justice
would demand that part of her jury
should be those who could mete out
justice because they have deep under
standing and knowledge.
Would women be less lenent to
her than men?" Mrs. Baright repeated
the question. "The law is not con-
cerned with leniency, but with justice.
Fair minded, normal women would not
be less lenient. but that is not the
issue. Leniency encourages crime;
justice has been designed to discourage
it"
The four women who were examined
for duty on the Edwards case were
that they objected to capital punish
ment. For these women Mrs. Baright
has an admonition.
81 heard prominent judge repr-
mand a man who made this claim" she
said, telling the man that he him
self, judge, did not believe in capital
punishment. But capital punishment
for certain crimes is law in this
state. young man. he said, and we've
all got to abide by it until the law is
changed That's what I'd like to say
to women who make such excuses. Up
hold the law or change it, but do not
try to avoid it,"
Mrs. Baright believes in fifty fifty
for men and women on juries.
"Why didn't they impanel jury of
men and one OF women, six Of each >.
she asks. apparently they examined
four or five times as many men as
women out there. The women suffe,
from the crimes of the world and they
should pass upon them. not out of jus
tice to themselves but in justice to the
parties of the trial.
That jury duty should be based upon
nothing but the ability of the juror to
deal out justice in view Of given set
of facts is the opinion of Miss Amy
Wren, practising lawyer in Brooklyn
and first vice-president of the Women
Lawyers Association.
"Sex should have nothing to do with
jury duty" she said. Names of women
should be put in the box in equal
NNiuUcIS WILL tHOSc Ol men, Ile names
: should be drawn and accepted just
as they come. The law of average
would take care that women would
then be represented adequately. If this
had been done in California, where
Miss Edwards is being tried, she would
have had a fair proportion Of women
on her jury"
Miss Wren would not admit for one
moment that women are less fair ia
women than men are.
"Men certainly do hesitate to convict
woman when the death penalty awaits
her; the history of women criminal,
in the courts has shown that. bat you
. may be sure that no group of women
sitting in judgment on the life of an
other woman is going to consign hel
to the electric chair any more readily
. Whatever the jokemakers may say
about the feline qualities of women
toward their own sex. women have q
horror Of death penalty and would in
hict it only under great pressure. In
small cases, men would probably be
more lenient, but as l understand the
function Of the court l should say that
lcniency has nothing to. do with the
merit or demerit of a case.''
!. Miss Wren said emphatically that
she would just as soon try case be
: fore jury of all women or part womer
as before q man jury.
, "Most lawyers wouldn't" she admit