The Final Verdict in the Boyd Case
A courtroom packed to suffocation erupts in cheers as a jury acquits Mrs. Boyd, concluding a high-profile trial followed closely by the public.
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.
At 12:29 o'clock, two hours and twenty-nine minutes after the jury retired, a loud knock on the door of their room announced to the 300 people who still remained that a verdict had been agreed upon. When the verdict of not guilty was announced a great cheer went up; men rose from their seats, spoke to their neighbors and said, 'I told you so.' The women burst into tears, gathered around Mrs. Boyd, kissed her and embraced her rapturously. She left the court room with Rev. William Carnes and her lady friend. Judge Humes sternly rebuked the cheer which went up, but himself appeared as well pleased as any of the others in the room.
“When the verdict of not guilty was announced a great cheer went up; men rose from their seats, spoke to their neighbors and said, 'I told you so.'”
Courtroom reporting at the turn of the century often focused heavily on the defendant's emotional state and dress, a trend that persists in high-profile media coverage of criminal trials today. The public gallery's involvement mirrors the modern 'court of public opinion' in viral legal cases.
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