A GREAT MURDER TRIAL BEGINS
Although the court officials had taken the precaution to admit
spectators only by cards issued from the sheriff's office, the famous
old room in the Criminal Courts Building was jammed to its very doors at
the opening of the trial of Dr. John Earl for the murder of Mrs. Emma
Bell, for it must be remembered sheriffs are elected by popular vote and
have friends in all walks of life. So there were business men and street
urchins, ladies of fashion and washerwomen, members of the learned
professions and hoboes, scholars and draymen, students of psychology and
the merely curious, advocates in frock-coats and counsellors in jackets,
attracted by the ever-living fascination of seeing a human being
fighting for his life, with the added interest in this case of the
novelty of seeing that fight made by a woman attorney.
Many tragic memories cling to this old room. Here other doctors had
been convicted and sentenced to the electric chair for sending poison
through the mails. Here more ordinary individuals had been acquitted by
displaying more skill in the transaction than had been shown by the
doctors. Here had been tried all sorts of murder cases, with all sorts
of defenses, from self-preservation with an ax to the irresponsibility
of a brain-storm. From that old-fashioned witness chair, on its high
platform, enough tales of tragedy had been told, if bound in books, to
fill a good-sized library; enough tears had been shed to atone for a
thousand crimes; enough pathos shown to have broken a million hearts;
enough perjury committed to substantiate David's somewhat sweeping
assertion.
From that high perch against the wall had emanated the technical
rulings, or the broad principles of justice that had made society
tremble for its safety, or caused it to repose in security.
From that old counsel's table some of the greatest lawyers of the world
had measured steel in weird combats over sending human souls into the
mysterious Beyond.
On this day, the district attorney sat at one side of the table, with
his assistants, grave, severe, determined-looking officers of the law.
On the other side sat a beautiful young woman, with luminous eyes, a
spirituelle countenance, but a firm and earnest manner and perfect
poise. Behind her sat the younger brother of the prisoner. At her side
was the prisoner himself, grave in mien, courageous in bearing,
collected in deportment. Back of them were Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey. Among
the witnesses for the defense was Dr. Morris, saturnine, mocking,
indifferent.
Thus organized society arrayed itself against a portion of its own
elements. Thus organized society spoke through the cold impassiveness of
its own laws, while its elements spoke through personal emotions and
human passions. Thus organized society appealed to itself to protect
itself, while its elements appealed for human kindness and universal
charity.
Such is the situation in every criminal trial.
It took three days to obtain a jury of proper qualification and
sufficient disinterestedness to satisfy both sides. All the other
lawyers watched with interest the methods employed by the "woman lawyer"
in asking her _voir dire_ questions and in exercising her right to
challenge, and most of them agreed that she asked no useless questions
and showed rare judgment in her peremptory challenges.
The next day on the convening of court the district attorney outlined
his case with circumstantial detail. He related in spectacular fashion
the first meeting of Dr. Earl and the Bells at the suffrage ball, and
dwelt insinuatingly upon the interest manifested by Dr. Earl in the
child at the time of the accident. Either inadvertently, or by design,
he referred in slighting tones to the part played at this meeting by the
"volunteer nurse," but his sentence was never completed, for Silvia
addressed the Court.
"May it please the Court," she said--and her manner was unmistakable--"I
have no right, and neither do I intend, to complain of any respectful
reference made to me during the course of this trial, either as an
individual, or as an attorney for this defendant, but I shall insist now
and hereafter that I must be referred to with the respect and
consideration due my, as yet, unsullied membership in the legal
profession and my reputation as a private citizen."
There was no opportunity for a ruling by the Court, for the district
attorney promptly disclaimed any intention of disrespect, and begged
her pardon for any words susceptible of such construction. It was
evident that her interruption produced a most favorable impression upon
Court, jury and spectators, and if any came to scoff at the weakness of
the "woman attorney" they remained to admire the strength of the female
advocate. The district attorney continued, warmed into greater
determination to make a lasting impression upon the jury as to the guilt
of the defendant.
He followed Dr. Earl on his numerous visits to the Bell home; dwelt upon
the unusual hour of many of them; agreed to prove more than ordinary
intimacy between Mrs. Bell and the defendant; showed the defects in his
surgery and the terrible results, which promised permanently to cripple
the child; exhibited the handwriting upon the box and placed beside it
the handwriting of Dr. Earl to undisputed legal documents; stated that
the defense would scarcely claim that the handwriting was not his;
asserted that they had positive proof that Dr. Earl had purchased a box
of candied fruit of the exact size and character of this box just prior
to the time it was mailed, and that Dr. Earl was in Boston at the time
of the mailing of the package.
From his recital it was clear that much thorough detective work had been
done in the case for the State.
"Now, gentlemen of the jury, as to the motive," he went on. "A powerful
incentive existed for the commission of this crime. Dr. Earl had been
engaged for some time to marry into one of the most prominent and
wealthy families in this city and the wedding was to have taken place
this month. The advertisement that followed his spectacular professional
performance at the suffrage ball brought him an enormous practice. To
have the public learn that this piece of surgery upon which his
reputation was based was in reality a case of malpractice meant ruin. To
have his married life disturbed by the appearance of a wronged woman
meant destruction to his domestic happiness, so he planned that the
poison should be sent to wipe out this family on the eve of his wedding
and before any damage had been done him in either of these directions.
You must confess it was a skillful job. Only one piece of poisoned fruit
in the box, and that so arranged as not to disturb its contents. Whether
mother or daughter got this piece of candied fruit first, the other was
doomed, for a kiss from those dying lips would have conveyed a like
fate, so powerful was this solution. The only thing that thwarted his
nefarious purpose to kill them both was the absence of the child, who
was in the country, a fact entirely unknown to Dr. Earl."
This and much more of like import furnished the closing portion of his
statement to the jury, and when he finished it was apparent that his
recital had made a deep impression upon every person in the courtroom.
The atmosphere was charged with serious import to Dr. Earl.
His sister had moved closer to him and was holding his hand. Her husband
came nearer, and Frank turned and gave him a reassuring glance. His
expressive face showed deep concern rather than worry.
As soon as the district attorney resumed his seat Silvia arose and
deathlike stillness fell upon the courtroom. "With your permission, your
honor, I will reserve my statement of defense until the State has closed
its case."
"Certainly, that is your privilege," replied the Judge.
Then there was a buzz of excited whispering. "What does it mean?" "Is
she afraid to state her defense after that terrific arraignment of the
defendant?" "Oh, there comes in the timidity of woman!" said an old and
skilled criminal lawyer. "Does she not realize that it is a fatal
evidence of weakness not to state a defense at the opening of the
trial?"
But the district attorney had called his first witness and the bailiff
rapped loudly for order. For three days the State put witness after
witness on the stand and by expert medical testimony, by toxicologists,
by direct and inferential testimony, the district attorney more than
proved the case which he had outlined to the jury.
That the child was probably permanently crippled from tuberculosis of
the knee and that the tuberculosis resulted from faulty surgery was the
opinion of the three surgical experts called upon that point, but upon
cross-examination Silvia forced each of them to admit that it was
possible that a former tubercular condition had recurred. She also
forced the unwilling admission that so far as the fracture of the leg
was concerned the bones had knit perfectly. The most damaging testimony
was that of a neighbor woman, who had overheard Mrs. Bell exclaim to
herself on the very day of the poisoning, "I will force him to marry me
or I will kill him!"
Pressed on cross-examination as to what she saw as well as heard, she
related how she had passed Mrs. Bell's door, which was open, and had
seen Mrs. Bell with a document of some kind in one hand and a pen in the
other, and had heard her utter this exclamation. When asked why she
assumed that the statement must refer to Dr. Earl, she replied with some
feeling that no other man had been seen around the apartment since Mrs.
Bell moved in, the first of April.
A young woman, a clerk in Thompson's candy store in Boston, identified
Dr. Earl as the purchaser of a box of candied fruit a few days before
the poisoning. On cross-examination she said it was a box of identical
proportions with the one marked "Exhibit A." Silvia asked her if the
boxes from their store did not always bear the firm name on the lid and
she admitted that they did, and swore that the one purchased by Dr. Earl
had the firm name on the outside of the lid in gilt letters. Then Silvia
showed her the box which had contained the poisoned fruit and asked her
to state on oath whether or not that was the box in which she had sold
Dr. Earl the fruit and she declared that it was not. Then she asked her
if Dr. Earl had purchased any loose pieces of fruit, and she testified
that he had not.
Silvia produced a box and asked the witness if it were not from the
Thompson store. She answered that it was.
"Did not Dr. Earl also purchase a box of pecans at the time that he
bought the fruit and is not this the box in which the pecans were
packed?" Silvia continued.
The girl seemed to study for a few moments. "Yes, I do remember," she
said, "he did buy a box of pecans the same day he bought the candied
fruit and this box may have contained them, for it is from our store. I
want to add, though, that I had forgotten about the nuts when the
district attorney asked his questions here and when I was examined in
Boston."
"How did you happen to forget about the nuts and remember about the
candied fruit?" asked Silvia.
"There was nothing to recall the pecans to my mind until you mentioned
them just now, but I remember that Dr. Earl bought them first and
returned afterward and bought the fruit."
On redirect examination the district attorney got an admission from the
clerk that at several places in Boston, which she mentioned, boxes could
be obtained without any name on the lid, but that the Thompson store
never carried them.
The testimony of this clerk that the box presented by the district
attorney had not come from their store, was the only rift in the
otherwise dense cloud of incriminating evidence for the State, and the
prosecution closed its case with perceptible gloom hanging over every
person connected with the defense, and the jury was grave of face, as
men well may be who have the life of a fellow being in their hands.
The prosecution closed at four-thirty and Silvia asked for an
adjournment until morning to open her case. The request was granted, and
New York spent the night wondering what the "woman lawyer" would do the
next day. In the cafes, clubs, hotels, between acts in the theatres,
little else was discussed, and the consensus of opinion was that she was
doomed to defeat in this her first big trial.
Progressive women grieved over the outlook, for it spelled much of
disaster to the woman movement if she should be humiliatingly
vanquished. Her friends championed her cause as best they could,
vigorously, but not with the genuine enthusiasm they would like to have
felt.
New York had never before been so interested in a criminal trial.