A Review of the Webster CaseJ.S. Redfield, 1850 - 30 pages John W. Webster was tried in the Supreme judicial court of Massachusetts, March 19-April 1, 1850, for the murder of Dr. George Parkman. |
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absurdities anonymous letters artists Attorney-General barrister blood bones Boston Bostonian calm Chief Justice Shaw cious circumstances Clerk of Deeds client clothes committed conceal conduct court crime criminal cross-examination deceased defence deposed direct testimony disappearance discovered dissecting vault Drawing-Book entered error exhibited fact foreman fork Francis Parkman furnace genius guilty hogshead homicide honor hour hypothesis indictment investigation J. S. REDFIELD judge juryman keys known laboratory laid Littlefield hand locked lordship Massachusetts ments mind morning never night nity noticed o'clock Officer Trenholme parish Parkman and Webster person piece-meal remains possessed preliminary examinations present number pressed prisoner prisoner's privy Profes Professor of Chirography Professor Webster proof of innocence prove PUBLISHED BY J. S. quarrel remarkable rule rules of law seen stained straw swore sympathy teeth thought tion treats of Perspective trial urged that Dr verdict waived asking wall Webster's room week whole witness wounds
Popular passages
Page 23 - Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks : Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it.
Page 28 - These accounts rather increased his Lordship's perplexity, from which he could think of no expedient to deliver himself, but by having a conference, in private, with the only person who could give him satisfaction. This he desired the sheriff to procure, who readily offered his service ; and, without delay, brought about the desired interview.
Page 1 - In civil cases, it is sufficient if the evidence, on the whole, agrees with and supports the hypothesis which it is adduced to prove ; but in criminal cases it must exclude every other hypothesis but that of the guilt of the party.
Page 26 - ... answer to those questions, it appeared that the deceased had first menaced the prisoner. "The prisoner being called upon to make his defence, addressed the following narration to the court, as containing all he knew concerning the manner and circumstances of the death of the deceased, viz.
Page 26 - That the shock he felt on account of this accident was not to be expressed , and the rather as it was well known that there had been a difference between the deceased and himself, on which account he might possibly be suspected of the murder. That he therefore thought it advisable to leave the deceased in the condition he was, and...
Page 29 - That the deceased being titheman of the parish, where he (the juryman) lived, he had, the morning of his decease, been in his (the juryman's) grounds, amongst his corn, and had done him great injustice, by taking more than his due, and acting otherwise in a most arbitrary manner. That when he complained of this treatment, he had not only been abused with scurrilous language, but, that the deceased had likewise struck at him several times with his fork, and had actually wounded him in two places,...
Page 25 - ... the witness had described, were discovered concealed in a straw bed. He then produced the bloody clothes in court, which the prisoner owned to be his clothes, and to have been thrust...
Page 25 - Common Pleas, upon an indictment for the murder of a man, who dwelt in the same parish with the prisoner. The first witness against him deposed, That on a certain day, mentioned by the witness in the morning, as he was going through a close, which he particularly described, at some distance from the path, he saw a person lying...
Page 29 - ... to reveal them, but as he had hitherto locked them up in his own breast, and was under no compulsion to disclose them, he expected his Lordship would engage upon his honour to keep what he was about to unfold...