Lizzie Borden and the Massachusetts Axe Murders Contributor(s): Bartle, Ronald (Author) |
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ISBN: 1909976431 ISBN-13: 9781909976436 Publisher: Waterside Press OUR PRICE: $28.45 Product Type: Paperback Published: May 2017 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Law | Legal History - True Crime | Murder - General |
Physical Information: 0.54" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (0.80 lbs) 256 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The case of Lizzie Bordon is one of the most infamous in criminal history having spawned songs, plays and media speculation. It also ranks as one of the most puzzling. Having been acquitted of the axe murders of both her parents, Borden then returned home and carried on as before only to be roundly ostracised by the stoutly religious local community. Prosecutors never charged anyone else. Here, author Ronald Bartle revisits events in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892. He explains how her answers to police questions were at times strange and contradictory and her accounts often bizarre. With so many pointers to her involvement in the killings her trial has been compared to that of O J Simpson in the modern day. Whatever the justice of the situation, no-one wanted to see a woman hanged. The case is immortalised in legal folklore as well as the children's skipping rhyme: From the text: "The essence of the prosecution case in the Borden trial is simply: If Lizzie didn't do it who else could have done? But when that is the proposition before a jury trying a defendant who enjoys from start to finish the presumption of innocence that is not enough... There is a difference between feeling certain that the defendant is guilty--and the sufficiency of the evidence to prove it. The method of criminal trial in Anglo-American jurisprudence is weighted in favour of the defendant...But as a system of justice it is, like democracy, though imperfect, better than all the others." |
Contributor Bio(s): Bartle, Ronald: - Ronald Bartle was Deputy Chief Stipendiary Magistrate (now District Judge) for Inner London having also practised as a barrister. |