"NOT GUILTY."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14691, 27 May 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

"NOT GUILTY."

AN " UNWRITTEN, LAW " DRAMA;

KILL AS KILL CAN.

Both were married women and the mother® of families. Mrs. Brooke, wife of &J* minent Fort Worth, Texas, lawyer L. sidered she had rather a serious grievance that of "alienating her husbands ailec* tions," against Mrs. Binford, saleswoman m a local store, so she just shot her dead Act two saw the murderess pleading "the unwritten law," her counsel wringing tears from tho jury by a heartrending "Home Sweet Home " solo, and the curtain des! cended on an acquittal. Such is America's legal procedure of the. twentieth century. Mrs. Brooks shot deceased in the presenco of a sbopful of customers at the department store where Mrs. Binford was employed. Mrs. Brooks declared in her evidence that Mrs. Binford had broken up her home by" stealing her husband's affect-ions, and that she had prayed for two years for the re, generation of her rival, and had personally begged her to give up Mr. Brooks. One day," she continued," Mrs. Binford came to my husband's office to get a divorce. Mr. Brooks called me on the telephone and said, 'Dearest, there is a woman here who wants mo to do legal work for her. Shi has no friends in this city and no money, : What do you say if I bring her to dinner to-night? ' Prisoner explained that she welcomed Mrs. Binford to. her home, and I soon had the inexpressible mortification of seeing her steal her husband's affections. All her pleading and remonstrances being in vain, she decided to kill Mrs. Binford. Secreting a revolver in her muff, she first went to church and prayed for forgiveness and then, entering the department store where Mrs. Binford was employed as a shopwalker, she ehot her dead. Prisoner further testified that the reviver with which tlio deed was done was hers. She had kept it, she said, for the purpose of committing suicide, but "decided to live for the sake of her two children." On the day of the murder she overheard a tele-" phone conversation between her husband and Mrs. Binford, in which both laughingly referred to her as " the old woman *• and congratulated eacn other on the manner in which tlley outwitted her. "The world," said prisoner, "suddenly toppled over and everything became blapk. 1 regained consciousness two days later, and remember nothing I did meanwhile." Counsel for the defence then rose. The scene that followed is thus described: —

" Counsel closed a powerful argument by singing to the jury in a tear-choked voice, 'Home, Sweet Home.' The song trembled on his lips and brought tears to the eyes of all the jurors, defendant, and the crowd which was packed in the room. It was a dramatic finish to the most dramatic murder trial in Texas history." The jury returned a verdict of "Not guilty" on; the charge of murder after » very short' deliberation, and the verdict was heartily cheered by the packed court