The Room with the Little DoorMolineux, Roland Burnham
General
The Room with the Little Door
Molineux, Roland Burnham
Molineux, Roland Burnham; Prisoners -- New York (State) -- Biography; Prisons -- New York (State)
Two men were involved—one was to be killed in earnest, because he had
inherited money; the other was nearly killed with kindness to make the
former killing possible. The office had no case against the first man.
But they arrested him; nor against the second man, so they arrested him,
also. The Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted them had a private
practice while holding public office. The charge against these men was,
that they had killed a third man, who really died a natural death—an old
man who had money. Now began the offers to each prisoner, separately, to
inform on the other. This always happens. The result in this case was
nil. Both protested their innocence, but the fearless prosecutor found
the weaker-natured of the two during these interviews. It was the second
man. To him was offered absolute freedom—and what else?—if he would say
the other did the murder. He did so. The examination took place. There
the other proved the informer’s story a lie; he proved a perfect alibi,
which could not be shaken. The legal adviser of the people had
employed—perjury. That was the one thing proved. Circumstances were now
changed; that story would not work. Remember there were millions at
stake, and the Able Assistant had a private practice. So quite a
different lie was invented and sworn to by the second man. This was also
proved to be a perjury, something for which no prosecutor’s witness is
ever prosecuted. Still the first man, the legatee, was held for trial.
But during the long wait of years in the Tombs for him, how did the
second man, the Assistant’s tool, fare? I said he was killed with
kindness. Of course that is not literal; but the Fearless Prosecutor
took good care of him; he was supplied with every comfort—no key was
ever turned on him.
In return he subscribed to any and all statements which were required to
kill number one. At the trial he made still a different confession from
the two previous ones; the third one was that he himself had committed
the murder at the instigation of the defendant. A self-confessed
murderer, a triple perjurer, he is now scot-free, and an innocent man is
in the Death-Chamber.
These are the methods of the fourth degree. The Court of Appeals does
not approve of them; one District Attorney has been removed from office
by the Governor; but another, he of the ever-ready biography, has handed
them down to his sons as an heritage of fame.
The public has no idea of the enormous number of cases which are
reversed by the Court of Appeals. Here is a recent one. A young man was
sentenced to imprisonment for twenty-five years by a General Session’s
judge. But the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, when reviewing
the case, said: “The defendant’s guilt has not been proven. It is not
even proven by the evidence that _any_ crime was committed.” This is a
fact, and any one who will take the trouble to read the published
decisions will find it and many more such instances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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