Should Blaisdell have judged the Preliminary?

[Harry]

One of the more controversal incidents of the Borden saga was Judge Blaisdell serving as the judge at the Preliminary hearing after presiding at the Inquest and had authorized the issuance of the warrant arresting Lizzie.

Technically he had the legal right to do so.

[Kat]

I was just reading about how he knew Lizzie's family, in the Crowell news items collection.
It seems to me he would be more sympathetic and that would be in her favor. All he heard at the inquest was testimony about Lizzie's nature and how the Borden house worked and info from Lizzie and neighbors and friends as to what they witnessed Thursday.
There wasn't a slanted view- no cops etc.

He was correct, IMO, when he said, after hearing the Preliminary Trial that if a man was standing there under this charge of murder of his parents there would be no doubt as to what should be done with him- which was to bind him over to the grand jury.
I think that was a fair statement.
He did not make any *Ultimate* decisions, other than to hold her for a jury, as he would a man.
I voted No.

[diana]

I had to think about this for a while.

A new judge, who had not presided over the inquest, would not have heard Augusta Tripp say that Lizzie was not fond of Abby and that relations between the two were not agreeable, or Hiram Harrington report that Lizzie spoke sneeringly about her stepmother and in an unfriendly way toward her, or Hannah Gifford claim that Lizzie called Abby a mean old thing. None of these three testified at the Preliminary Hearing.

Nonetheless, I agree that Blaisdell did appear sympathetic towards Lizzie. The Evening Standard reported he was visibly moved when he pronounced his decision of "probably guilty" at the close of the Preliminary Hearing. And as Kat points out, his was not an ultimate decision.

So I also vote no.

[augusta]

I think it was fair that he was the judge at both, because he heard some witnesses at the inquest that he would not have heard had he not been overseeing that hearing.

I can see where the defense team must have had a fit over it. But if it was legal, then there wasn't much they could do about it.

Good question, Harry.