Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1867-02-02 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

SENSATION" TRIALS IN AUSTRIA.  The following account of two "sensation" trials rec•ntly r,earrinir It V:enna, are furnished by the cwrespondent of hi TOMOS wri,ing from 'hat city, end oho remarks that tt ey have excited the attention of the public there In the highest degree:—  The find c ise was that of a criminal action brought against a young girl by the family of a nobleman for fraud and extortion. A. certain Baron Ulm had bees induced by a girl whom he accidentally met to promise either to marry her or to give her 10,000 fl. After a few months' acquaintance he introduced her to his family, who were living at Freiburg, in Baden, and be was at fir.t kindly received as his future w fe. A. soon, however, as the pecuniary transaction that bad pawed between them became known, the ecene changed. The young lady was driven with violence from the home of her intended husband, and his family sued her for extortion and fraud, at the name time applying to the authorities for a declaration that the Baron was an imbecile and incapable of managing his own affairs. At the trial two medical witnesses were called, who declared that they considered Baron Ulm to be non ani media corn pot; and, although their testimony was severely shaken by the counsel for the defence. the three judges—who in Austria perform the functions of jury as well as judges—foued the young woman guilty of extortion (although not of fraud), and sentenced her to six months' imprisonment with hard labour. Admitting the imbecility of Ulm, his premise to pay 10,000ffi was also annulled by them. Baron Ulm ap. peered as a witness at the trial; his behaviour wad perfectly rational, and, as in the notorious Wyndham affair in England a few years ago, with which the present caw has some analogy, the sympathies of the public were entirely with the persecuted lovers. The defectn in the Austrian law which became apparent on this occasion are, that there is no such thing as a coin. miegion "de lonatico inquirendo;" that medied unsure cannot be called for the defence in such casec arid that the medical witnesses who give evidence on these occasions are not independent physicians, taut are officially engaged and permanently attached to the Criminal Court of justice for all medico-legal cases.  The other trial was that of a very young and del;entelooking musician, Marcher by name, anti hautboint at one of the minor theatres, who had committed • most atrocious murder upon a man to whom he owed a trifling sum of money. At the trial he apwared to be insane, either refusing to answer the questions pat to him Sr giving absurd replies, and demeaning himself generally in an extravagant manner. The only medical witness called in this case IMP the surgeon of the prison in which Marcher was confined, who declared the man's insanity to be simulated. lie was sentenced. in consideration of his youth and previ us good character, to eighteen years' imyrisonmtnt with h%rd labour. After the trial was over it appeared that a sister of the murderer has been an inmate of a lunatic asylum for some years, and that the symptoms of her insanity are very similar to those displayed by the young man on his trio'.