To begin at the beginning of this story, click here to go to Part 1.
Part Seven: “The Verdict”
Reporting the jury’s decision in the Lucille McLeod-Memhard murder trial was the news of the day. Lucille’s hometown paper, The Lake County Times, reported an evocative headline on November 20, 1906, the day following the verdict:
IS DECLARED NOT GUILTY
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Lucille McLeod-Memhard Acquitted of Murder
Charge of Jury
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SCENE IN COURT ROOM
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Defendant Faints and So Does Sister of Dead Man —
Friends Cheer
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In the second paragraph following the headline the paper illuminated: “The absence from the courtroom at the time the verdict was rendered of the woman’s husband, to whom she was married in Hammond under such romantic circumstances a few days before her trial, started the rumor that the couple had never been married at all and that their reported marriage was merely circulated for its probable effect of winning sympathy from the jury. The rumor, however, proved to be without foundation as investigation showed the license was duly taken out in the office of the county clerk and returned, as provided by law, to the mail office at Crown Point.”
A case of such prominence today would likely have TV and video cameras inside the court room, but in 1906 the recording of events was the sole responsibility of journalists. To that end, The Lake County Timesdescribed “the closing scene at the trial” as being “marked by dramatic incidents.”
It depicted Lucille’s reactions as, “the fair defendant proceeded to faint as the jury was about to file into the court room . . .,” followed by a reported that “Mrs. Memhard had been quite calm while waiting to hear her fate, having even composedly prepared for some press photographs. . . “ In a later paragraph the paper hyperbolized, “The long wait was trying to the woman whose fate the twelve good men and true held within their hands and she was visibly affected as the jury started to enter. She gave a series of wild shrieks, swayed to and fro, throwing up her hands, [and] collapsed.”
Somewhat confusing is that jury deliberation was reported to have taken “. . . two hours and ten minutes . . . “ on the instructions of Judge Kavanaugh regarding the meaning of the phrase “reasonable doubt” and “moral certainty.”
Lucille was not the only woman who fainted in the courtroom that day. “Miss Carrie Nieman [sic], sister of William Nieman [sic], also fainted when the acquittal was announced.” While the sister of the victim fell unconscious, “The court room rang with cheers by friends of the defendant.”
There is a difference between a decision of Not Guilty and an Acquittal rendered by a jury or judge.
Not Guilty means the State has not proven the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, thus such a decision is not dispositive of the person’s total innocence.
An acquittal means the defendant is completely innocent, beyond any double. Thus, one can conclude in the murder case of William Niemann, the jury failed to see any culpability on the part of Lucille McLeod Memhard in the death of her lover and fiancé, an interesting view since the jury was comprised of all men. Perhaps the jury found Lucille’s testimony credible, that William did first shoot Lucille and then himself, based on the discovery of the gun under Niemann’s body and not near Lucille.
old spirituals 