Whether she was guilty or not, there is a general impression
that she murdered Caesar Young. Yet the writer, who was
present throughout the trial, felt at the conclusion of the
case that there was a fairly reasonable doubt of her guilt.
Even so, the jury disagreed, although the case is usually
referred to as an acquittal and a monument to the
sentimentality of juries.

The acquittal of Roland B. Molineux is also recalled as a case
where a man, previously proved guilty, managed to escape. The
writer, who was then an assistant district attorney, made a
careful study of the evidence at the time, and feels confident
that the great majority of the legal profession would agree
with him in the opinion that the Court of Appeals had no
choice but to reverse the defendant's first conviction on
account of the most prejudicial error committed at the trial,
and that the jury who acquitted him upon the second occasion
had equally no choice when the case was presented with a
proper regard to the rules of evidence and procedure. Indeed,
on the second trial the evidence pointed almost as
convincingly toward another person as toward the defendant.

I have mentioned the Patterson, Thaw, and Molineux trials
because they are cases commonly referred to in support of the
general contention that the jury system is a failure. But I
am inclined to believe that any single judge, bench of judges,
or board of commissioners would have reached the same result
as the juries did in these instances.

It is quite true that juries, for rather obvious reasons, are