A Murder Case Collapses, and Three Japanese Laborers Walk Out Free
Charged with the throat-slitting of a fellow countryman at Auburn, three men are discharged when the state's own witnesses fail to make a case.
The trial of the three Japanese — Senkichi Aoki, Shigesaku Satow and Nakamura — for killing a fellow-countryman named Seinoso Mayeda at Auburn last August, ended at 5 o'clock last night in Judge Humes' court by a dismissal of the case at the close of the testimony for the state.
The case was called for trial at 2 o'clock and a jury was speedily obtained. The defendants demanded separate trials. The case against Nakamura — who had attempted suicide in jail — was first taken up, the prisoner being represented by D. T. Crose and the State by Prosecutor Hastie and W. W. [assistant].
The following witnesses were examined in rapid succession: Dr. G. M. Barton, the ex-coroner; John Halls, who hired the murdered man; his wife Sarah Halls; Berry; S. L. Menefield, who sold the butcher knife with which the murder was alleged to have been committed; and Deputy Sheriff J. L. McDonald.
In substance the witnesses told how Mayeda was found with his throat cut, and gave in detail the circumstances of the murder and the unfriendly relations between the slain man and the prisoner. At the close of the testimony for the state the defendant's counsel moved that the prisoner be discharged on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence. Judge Humes granted the motion, saying there was nothing before the court to justify the trial proceedings further, and Nakamura walked out of the room a free man.
The result of the trial of Nakamura was decisive of the cases against Satow and Aoki, as the evidence was weaker against them than against Nakamura, and on motion of the prosecuting attorney they were ordered discharged.
“Judge Humes granted the motion, saying there was nothing before the court to justify the trial proceedings further, and Nakamura walked out of the room a free man.”
At a moment when Japanese laborers were arriving in Washington Territory to build railroads and work the hops, a killing among countrymen at Auburn exposed a community already large enough to have its own conflicts — and a legal system indifferent to prosecuting them. Within a decade anti-Asian agitation would drive the exclusion campaigns that shook the coast. The swift collapse of this case is a reminder that for immigrant workers, the court was often less a refuge than a lottery.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.