The Anatomy of a Murder (Misunderstood)
A courtroom blunder in 1876 highlights how a simple misunderstanding can derail the pursuit of justice.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A witness for the prosecution in a murder case was thus questioned by His Honor:
'You say you saw this man shoot at and kill the victim?'
'Yes, sir.'
'You said, I think, that the charge struck the deceased, on his body, between the diaphragm and the duodenum?'
Witness: 'No, sir, I didn't say any such thing. I said he was shot between the hog pen and the woodhouse.'
“I said he was shot between the hog pen and the woodhouse.”
Even in the rough-and-tumble era of 1870s Seattle, legal proceedings were often bogged down by the stark disconnect between the formal, Latinate language of the court and the plain speech of the people. It remains a timeless reminder that justice is only as clear as the communication between those who seek it and those who administer it.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.