The Kirwan case : illustrating the danger of conviction on circumstantial evidence, and the necessity of granting new trials in criminal cases.

Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Kirwan case : illustrating the danger of conviction on circumstantial evidence, and the necessity of granting new trials in criminal cases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    haps, is enough to characterize her testimony ; but there are other answers to the two points insisted on by the prosecution. Amongst many, let us select the evi- dence [jSTo. 2.] of Mrs. Bentley, well known in Dublin as a lady of the highest respectability and character. She declares, “ That she teas on intimate terms from her infancy icith Mrs. Kirwan ; that this connexion with the woman Kenny icas hnoim to her for tioelve years ; that Mrs. Kirwan mentioned it as the only fault in her husband’s character, and spoJce of it without excite- ment or emotion ; that in speaking of Mrs. Kirwan she invariably stated, “ a more quiet^ gentle, good-natured., and generous-hearted man never existedthat he was “ kind and attentive to her in sickness.^’ Such are not the facts, such is not the disposition, Avhich would lead on a man to the murder of his wife. Nor is it a subtle deduction, but a broadly-based observation of human nature, that women without a family by their husbands regard them as almost suffering wrong or injury, and are therefore disposed to look with a more lenient eye than others on connections such as these. Again, we beg that we be not understood as palliating such. We acknowledge to the full their heinousness. Their actual injury to society has been, perhaps, greater than that of murder itself. But we do protest against the injustice and unreasonableness of establishing a natural connexion between the two. Thus, the result of an inquisitorial search into a married life of twelve years’ duration has been the pro- duction to the public of one quarrel, sujDported at the trial by such evidence as Mrs. Campbell’s; sub- stantially contradicted by her OAvn sworn informations; and contradicted in all its assumed inferences by the