The
jurors said that they had agreed to disclose nothing of their
deliberations.
"But," explained Wellman, "you see, in a way I am your
attorney, and I want to know how to do better next time. She
had offered to plead guilty if she could get off with twenty
years!"
The abashed jury slunk downstairs in silence and the secret of
their deliberations remains as yet untold.
In spite of such cases, where guilty women have been acquitted
through maudlin sentiment or in response to popular clamor,
nothing could be more erroneous than the idea that few women
who are brought to the bar of justice are made to suffer for
their offences. Thus, although no woman has suffered the
death penalty in New York County in twenty years, the average
number of convictions for crime is practically the same for
women as for men in proportion to the number indicted. The
last unreversed conviction of a woman for murder in the first
degree was that of Chiara Cignarale, in May, 1887. Her
sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Pages:
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218