Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I was reding an old post written by Harry called "Dewey's charge to the Jury". It goes something like this: "One of the more controversial aspects of Lizzies' trial was Deweys' charge to the jury prior to the verdicit. Opinions of leagel minds far more knowledgeable than mine, say that the charge was pro LIzzie and a virtual charge to acquit.

It is also known that Dewey was appointed as judge earlier by then Gov. Robinson. However, dewey was not the presiding at Lizzies' trial. Mason was. Would not Deweys charge have to be, if not approved at least, by the two other judges?"

My thing is, why would he be charging the jury if he wasn't the presiding judge? And why didn't he recuse himself from the trial on the basis of that one of Lizzies lawyer was the former governor that appointed him? And, finally, why didn't the procecution insist on him getting of the trial? I mean, they had to have known who put him on the bench. Just some questions and thoughts.

I have always had the sneaking suspicion that the prosecution really didn't want to win this case. Public sentiment was strongly opposed to sentencing a woman to death, so no one wanted to be the person responsible for a guilty verdict. Dewey went way out of bounds with his charge to the jury, citing things not in evidence and suggesting that the jury disregard expert testimony when it went against Lizzie. Just the fact that Dewey delivered the charge seems to indicate the contempt the court had for the whole process, the reason Dewey was in that position was Robinson's doing! Since no one wanted to see a woman executed, no one on the jury wanted to find her guilty, and Dewey effectively told the jury that the court expected a not guilty verdict. If they had caught her red-handed and taken a photograph I expect the outcome would have been the same!

That is probably why the prosecution didn't oppose Dewy to begin with. Noone wanted a guilty verdict. Most prosecutors these days would have screaming bloody murder to get him removed because of the relationship that existed between Dewy and Robertson.

They squawked loud enough when Judge Blaisdell officiated at the preliminary after having held the inquest, I don't know why they wouldn't squawk about the Dewey/Robinson connection, especially having been pre-sensitized with a supposed infraction of the rules.