Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1901 — MOLINEUX TO BE RETRIED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MOLINEUX TO BE RETRIED.

Trial Court Erred in Admitting Certain Evidence. Roland B. Molineux, convicted of murder in the first degree in March, 1900. after one of the longest trials on record,

is to have another chance for his life. Once more must the State of New York prove beyond doubt that he was responsible for the death of Mrs. Adams, by sending poisoned (powders through the mails aud upon the belief that it will be unable to do so, Molineux stakes his hope of life.

The reason for the reversal of the judgment of conviction, in which reversal all the judges of the New York Court of Appeals agree, is that the trial court erred in receiving in evidence the declarations Barnett made to Drs. Phillips and Douglas that he had received Kutnow powders through the mails. All the judges agree also that the authorship of writings received in evidence must be established by witnesses who saw the paper written or to whom it had been acknowledged; or by witnesses familiar with the handwriting of the person charged to be the writer and who are able to testify from their familiarity to a belief of its genuineness; or Writing which is shown to have been recognized and acquiesced in by the person supposed to have written it, iu his business transactions, may be compared with the disputed writing by witnesses. From this it would appear that-the trial court erred in admitting the evidence of experts in handwriting. ~

R. B. MOLINEUX.