THE AUCKLAND MURDER TRIAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2119, 19 February 1908, Page 2

THE AUCKLAND MURDER TRIAL.

ACCUSED WOMAN ACQUITTED. Press Association. AUCKLAND, Feb. 18. Ihe case against Florence Earncurie, charged with the murder of ilier infant-, was concluded to-day. His Honor, in summing up, said lit did not necessarily follow that the return of a verdict of guilty would mean .that- the prisoner should be hanged. In this case, however, he did not think the jury would be justified in bringing in a verdict of 'maiisluughtor. It was either a case of murder or not murder. The story was a very simple one. The prisoner was a young married woman, and had given birth to an illegitimate child. She sought to find a home in which to .place the child, but foiled, .and three days later 'the infant disappeared. .The prisoner gave false -accounts of the child’s whereabouts, -and the next development, his Honor said, was the finding of the body of a child in the harbor. The question nexlt arose of identity. Prisoner admitted going for a blow on'the harbor, and however the child got into the water, it was sufficient -for tfie jury to believe that it was drowned, as the body found was similar. The question was, could they believe the whole of her story, -and if what the prisoner said was true, then she was blameless, .and if they did not believe that the- baby fell from her arms, then thev must return a verdict of guilty of murder. She did not at tlio time call out and have the steamer stopped, and it was sought to show in the cross-examina-tion of medical witnesses that the woman was in such a condition as to ,be robbed of her powers of speech as a result of the shock. If she did lose that power of speech for a few minutes, and if the jury believed thait it .was reasonably possible, was it not also conceivable that- under the circumstances she would decide to say nothing of the occurrence later on. If in the place of a juryman he would say to himself, “This unhappy woman’s stiory may be true, and if there is cause for reasonable doubt, then she must be given the benefit of that doubt and acquitted.” The jury, -after 20 minutes’ retirement, brought-in a verdict of “Not guilty.’ The prisoner was accordingly discharged. " She was led in a hysterical condition from the dock.