The Price of a Plea in the Seattle Courts
After a hung jury and two days of intense legal maneuvering, James M. Evans, charged with the murder of his wife in Franklin, admits to second-degree murder to avoid a life-or-death first-degree verdict.
James M. Evans, the man charged with killing his wife in December at Franklin, pleaded guilty yesterday to murder in the second degree. He had been tried a little over two weeks ago on a charge of murder in the first degree, but the jury, after deliberating for forty-six hours, failed to agree. The second trial began yesterday morning with the selection of a new jury. By 2:30 p.m., after the jury panel was exhausted and only eleven men were chosen, the accused's lawyer, Allen A. Garner, after consulting with Prosecuting Attorney Miller, announced that his client would withdraw his plea of not guilty. Mr. Miller believed it would have been difficult to convict Evans of first-degree murder and felt the ends of justice were served by this outcome. Sentencing is expected on Saturday, with a penalty of ten to twenty years in the penitentiary.
“It would have been a very difficult matter to convict Evans of murder in the first degree, and thought the ends of justice were best served by the course adopted.”
The legal strategy of 'pleading down' to avoid the uncertainty and high stakes of a jury trial—especially in cases of domestic violence—remains a cornerstone of the American justice system, reflecting the same pragmatic (and sometimes controversial) search for finality seen in 1892.
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