Convicted but Innocent

A Story of Circumstantial Evidence

Our district court was in session, and in the evening, during the recess, a small party of us were assembled in the private room of the presiding judge, a man fully up to three-score-and-ten, with but one guiding light while upon the bench, he told us a story, as follows:

“Years ago, I was Prosecuting Attorney for my judicial district. I was young then, a little more than thirty—but had worked hard to instruct and improve my profession. When I became District Attorney I meant to do my duty, and as I felt myself, in a measure, pitted against the whole bar, I gathered my strength, and prepared to marshal all the forces at my command.

“At length came what I had long desired—a capital trial. It was a case of murder, seemingly of the most atrocious character. The Attorney-General came down to attend, but when he found how well I understood the case, and how thoroughly I had prepared myself, he did not propose to bother himself. He would leave me to conduct the prosecution, holding himself in readiness to render assistance, or offer suggestions, in case of need.

“The case came on, and I presented the Government’s complaint, and the grounds thereof. The prisoner at the bar was Charles Ashcroft, a young man of five-and-twenty—intelligent and handsome—and about the last man in the world one would have selected as a murderer. Yet he stood thus charged, and the evidence was overwhelming against him.

“The facts as elicited in evidence were these: Ashcroft had been a teacher in the academy of the town where he resided, and where the killing had been done. He had waited upon a young lady, named Susan Lattimer, and had evidently loved her very dearly; but it seemed that Susan was not inclined to be constant. A wealthy suitor presented himself for her… Read More