Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1890 — Why Choate Did Not Defend Professor Webster. [ARTICLE]

Why Choate Did Not Defend Professor Webster.

It has often been wondered why Choate was not employed to defend Professor Webster against the charge of killing Dr. Parkman—the most noted criminal trial in the . annals of New England, if not of the whole country—and it has sometimes been said that the great advocate shrank from the odium of securing the acquittal of the culprit. But is now known that, although urged by Franklin Dexter, one of the leaders of the bar, who believed Webster inuocent and wanted him defended on thkt ground, and by Charles Sumner, who took a similar view and urged the defense in the interest of humanity, Choate would not accept the case, because he would not undertake to declare that Webster did not kill Parkman. The alternative plea of justifiable homicide in selfdefense, or of manslaughter by reason of sudden altercation, wai the only one which Choate would accept. But Professor Webster and his advisers would not agree to this line of defense, and the consequence was that he lost the services of the great advocate, who would probably have saved hii life had he been allowed the only method of defense which accorded with his convictions of policy and of truth.— Arena.