''People v. Molineux'', 168 N.Y. 264 (1901), was a
landmark decision
Landmark court decisions, in present-day common law legal systems, establish precedents that determine a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially affect the interpretation of existing law. "Leading case" is commonly u ...
by the
Court of Appeals of New York
The New York Court of Appeals is the supreme court, highest court in the Judiciary of New York (state), Unified Court System of the New York (state), State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge of the New Yor ...
concerning the trial of a suspected murderer.
Background, Trial and Appellate decision
![Roland Burnham Molineux portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Roland_Burnham_Molineux_portrait.jpg)
Roland Burnham Molineux, son of General Edward Leslie Molineux of Brooklyn, was a chemist by profession. He was charged with
first degree murder for having caused the death of Katherine Adams by poisoning. It was alleged that Molineux had a feud with Harry Seymour Cornish, the athletic director of the
Knickerbocker Athletic Club, and that Molineux had mailed a bottle labeled "Emerson's
Bromo-Seltzer
Bromo-Seltzer was a brand of antacid formulated to relieve pain occurring together with heartburn, upset stomach, or acid indigestion. It originally contained sodium bromide and acetanilide, both toxic substances which were eventually removed ...
" to Cornish at the club. The powder in the bottle contained
cyanide of mercury. Cornish took the bottle home to the lodgings he shared with his 62-year-old distant cousin, Katherine Adams, and her daughter, Florence. On the morning of 28 December 1898, Katherine was suffering from a headache, and Florence, recalling that Cornish had brought the bottle of bromo-seltzer home the previous evening, asked Cornish for it. At Katherine's request, Cornish removed the cork from the bottle and prepared a dose by mixing a heaping teaspoonful of the bromo-seltzer with a half glass of water. Katherine drank the contents of the glass and, within a few minutes, became violently ill. A doctor was called, but Katherine died shortly after his arrival.
Molineux's first jury trial lasted from November 1899 to February 1900, making the ''People v. Molineux'' the longest and one of the most expensive trials in New York history to that date. The press offered wall-to-wall coverage, especially the ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...
'' and the ''
New York Journal
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
'', then locked in the epic circulation struggle that began
yellow journalism.
Molineux was convicted on 10 February 1900.
[Schecter, p. 354.] After being sentenced to death on 16 February, he was transferred to
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...
to await execution.
His lawyers filed an appeal, and on 15 October 1901, the
Court of Appeals of New York
The New York Court of Appeals is the supreme court, highest court in the Judiciary of New York (state), Unified Court System of the New York (state), State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge of the New Yor ...
reversed the conviction. The decision was a
judicial landmark, defining the conditions under which prosecutors could introduce evidence of previous crimes at a defendant's trial. Generally speaking, wrote Justice William E. Werner
William Edward Werner (April 19, 1855 in Buffalo, Erie County, New York – March 1, 1916 in Rochester, Monroe County, New York) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.
Biography
He was the son of Peter Werner and Margaret Werner, w ...
in a formulation that even today is known as the "Molineux rule," the state "cannot prove against a defendant any crime not alleged in the indictment
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a legal person, person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felony, felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concep ...
." This rule was intended as a constitutional safeguard, protecting a defendant from "the assumption that ewas guilty of the crime charged because he had committed other, similar crimes in the past."
At the original trial, the prosecution had entered evidence suggesting that Molineux had been responsible for an earlier death, that of Henry Crossman Barnet, with the aim of showing that he had a propensity to murder. Molineux and Barnet were friends. In November 1897, Molineux had introduced Barnet to Blanche Chesebrough, and shortly after that, Blanche turned down Molineux's proposal of marriage. It was alleged that a rivalry which developed between Molineux and Barnet over Blanche was Molineux's motive for bringing about Barnet's death. Barnet died on 10 November 1898, and on 19 November 1898, one week after attending Barnet's funeral, Blanche married Molineux.
[Schecter, p. 92.] Barnet's death had been attributed by the attending physicians to a weakened heart caused by
diphtheria
Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...
,
despite the fact that he had become violently ill on 28 October 1898 after having taken a dose from a sample tin of Kutnow's Improved Effervescent Powder which had arrived in the mail, unsolicited, two months earlier. The powder was later analyzed, and found to contain cyanide of mercury. On 28 February 1899 Barnet's body was exhumed and the organs, when analyzed, were found to contain the same poison; however, Molineux had never been indicted for the murder of Barnet, and the Appeals Court ruled that using "evidence" of an unproven previous act of murder against the defendant in a subsequent unrelated trial violated the basic tenet of
presumption of innocence
The presumption of innocence is a legal principle that every person accused of any crime is considered innocent until proven guilty. Under the presumption of innocence, the legal burden of proof is thus on the prosecution, which must present com ...
, and, therefore, such evidence was inadmissible
[ (other than on five clearly defined grounds). Thus, "the state cannot prove against a defendant any crime not alleged in the indictment, either as a foundation for a separate punishment, or as aiding the proofs that he is guilty of the crime charged."
The decision was notable in its impact on the rules of admissibility of evidence. Over one hundred years later, Judge Rosenblatt of the New York Appeals Court stated that the Molineux decision was a "landmark case" which led to the precedent that:
]a criminal case should be tried on the facts and not on the basis of a defendant's propensity to commit the crime charged. It is axiomatic that propensity evidence invites a jury to misfocus, if not base its verdict, on a defendant's prior crimes rather than on the evidence (or lack of evidence) relating to the case before it. We have repeated this theme throughout the last century[Jonakait.]
Aftermath
Molineux was acquitted at his subsequent retrial. On 18 November 1902, one week after Molineux's acquittal, Blanche filed for divorce in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, citing mental cruelty. The divorce was granted in September 1903, and less than two months later Blanche married Wallace D. Scott, her attorney in the divorce proceedings. She died in 1954 at the age of eighty.
By 1912 Molineux had written a play set in a prison, ''The Man Inside'', which was produced by David Belasco
David Belasco (July 25, 1853 – May 14, 1931) was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story ''Madame Butterfly'' for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of m ...
in 1913.[Schecter, p. 439.] On 8 November 1913, three days before the play's premiere, Molineux married Margaret Connell. During 1913 Molineux's mental condition had deteriorated, and in November of that year he was said to have had a nervous breakdown, and was in a sanitarium. Molineux died 2 November 1917[Schecter, p. 444.] in Kings Park State Hospital
The Kings Park Psychiatric Center, known by Kings Park locals as "The Psych Center", is a former state-run psychiatric hospital located in Kings Park, New York. It operated from 1885 until 1996, when the State of New York closed the facility, ...
. According to the death certificate, he had died of "syphilitic infection".
The prosecuting New York District Attorney Asa Bird Gardiner
Asa Bird Gardiner (September 30, 1839 – May 24, 1919) was a controversial American soldier, attorney, and district attorney for New York County (a.k.a. the Borough of Manhattan) from 1898 to 1900.
He received the Medal of Honor for his service ...
was sacked by then-Governor Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
on the grounds of incompetence.
One of Molineux's lawyers was former governor Frank S. Black
Frank Swett Black (March 8, 1853March 22, 1913) was an American newspaper editor, lawyer and politician. A Republican, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1895 to 1897, and the 32nd Governor of New York from 1897 ...
. Another, Bartow Sumter Weeks
Bartow Sumter Weeks (April 25, 1861 – February 3, 1922) was the President of the New York Athletic Club, President of the Amateur Athletic Union and a justice of the Court of Appeals of New York.
Biography
He was born on April 25, 1861, in Ro ...
went on to become a New York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...
judge.[Schechter, p. 59.]
See also
* Molineux hearing
Notes
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Molineux
1901 in New York (state)
1901 in United States case law
New York (state) state case law
United States evidence case law