WOMAN'S SACRIFICE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 137, 10 June 1911, Page 17

WOMAN'S SACRIFICE.

TO SAVE THE MAN SHE LOVED. SENSATIONAL CONFESSION. # How a woman has s&erifioed her honour !to save the life of a man charged with murder is told in St. Louis, in the United States, where a sensational murder trial had a startling sequel on Friday, April 21. As a result the trial of Dr. Ualdane Clemenson for the murder of his wife will be reopened. Last antumn the doctor's wife was found dead in bed, and a coroner's jury returned a verdict that she had been poisoned. Suspicion pointed to the woman's husband, and he was arrested and tried. He declared his innocence, but was unable to prove it, nnd circumstantial evidence convicted him. The striking feature of the case was that while asserting his Innocence Dr Clemen-s-on refused to defend himself or to make any statement which would exculpate him. Owing, however, to the want of direct evidence of the crime, and perhaps to the fact that the doctor was a popular and wealthy physician of St. I>onls. his sentence of death was commuted to one of imprisonment for life. Now Mrs Jane Smythe. a young, rich, and beautiful woman, has confessed that practically all the nigh, on which the physician's wife was killed, she was with ihe defendant, and he could not have committed the crime. As a climax to this event, the husband [ of Mrs Smythe. a prominent busimrss man j of St. Louis, has declared that he appro- j dated the noble motives which prompted ] his wife to blast her own reputation audi to forfeit all right to his love and respect, and that he would forgive her for her indiscretion. Learning of the forgiveness of her husband, Mrs Smythe hurried to the home of her mother, again made a confession of her p«rt in the affair, aud again was forgiven, receiving a joint promise then of all the aid and comfort that the husband anil mother could bestow upon her lv the ordeal through which she must pass to save an innocent man. Now there will be a new trial, and Or Clemenson. who from tirst to last remained silent, will probably go free. Mrs Smythe says she wished at the time of the trial to make this confession, but i Dr. Clemenson would not permit it. She has. she says, suffered very greatly since the doctor's conviction and can stand the tortnre no longer. Therefore she determined at every cost to clear the prisoner.