Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost YearsMaybrick, Florence Elizabeth
History
Mrs. Maybrick's Own Story: My Fifteen Lost Years
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth
Maybrick, Florence Elizabeth, 1862-1941; Trials (Murder) -- England; Women prisoners -- England
There was also an attempt by the prosecution to suggest an attempt to
administer medicine, arising out of an occasion when James Maybrick
said to her, “You have given me the wrong medicine again,” from which
it appears that on the Friday, the day before death, Mrs. Maybrick
was not giving him anything at all, but was trying to get him to take
some medicine from Nurse Callery, who was endeavoring to induce him to
take it. This was one of the medicines ordered by Dr. Humphreys, _and
was found free from arsenic_. The judge did not refer to this in his
summing-up, but reference to it is introduced here because it exhausts
the whole evidence, with the exception of the Valentine’s meat juice
incident, as to any suggestions or even of any occasions of attempt to
administer, while Mr. Matthews advised the Queen that “the evidence
leads clearly to the conclusion that the prisoner administered and
attempted to administer arsenic to her husband with intent to murder,”
which formed his ground for consigning this woman to penal servitude
for life. _No evidence, either of any act of administration or of any
act of attempt to administer either with or without felonious attempt,
was given at the trial, which possibly could have led any person to
any such conclusion_, with the single exception of the Valentine’s
meat juice; and as none of that was administered after it had been in
Mrs. Maybrick’s hands, the utmost that could be said of it (assuming
that she did put any arsenic into it) is that it was an _attempt_ to
administer, either feloniously or otherwise. It is submitted that the
judge _misdirected_ the jury as to this incident, in that he did not
tell them that the mere evidence of an attempt to administer arsenic
was not sufficient--that they must be satisfied that the attempt to
administer was with a _mens rea_ and with an intent to murder.
EXCLUSION OF PRISONER’S TESTIMONY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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