A NOTABLE TRIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 172, 11 July 1908, Page 4

A NOTABLE TRIAL.

The trial of Mrs. Jane Buikie, on a charge of murdering Alexander. Brown by administering arsenic to Win, was concluded at the Central Criminal Court at about !) o'clock last night (says th 3 Sydney Daily Telegraph of the 19th tilt), ■when the accused was found not guilty by the jury after two hours' deliberation. Extraordinary public interest was manifested in the trial, and the attendance of wouH'ii, curious to gaze upon another woman being tried for her life, grew day by day during the four days that the' trial lasted, until the whoh; of the floor space at the back of the court was yesterday reserved for them. The appearance of this portion of the court last nightjvas like that of the ladies' gallery inlhe Legislative Assembly when something unusual is expected to transpire in the house. In fact, a solicitor of over -II) years' criminal practice remarked that lie had never ill his life seen the like before. So fearful were the fair sex of losing their seats or missing some portion of the linal stages of the trial that they sat tight throughout the addresses and the summing-up, and did not move even to gel a morsel to eat, during the long adjournment, from 7 to !) p.m., luring which the jury were supplied ,-;it 1l tea. and agreed upon their verdict.

The accused woman, who displayed some agitation while making her statement to the jury, was overcome with emotion once' or twice while her counsel (Mr.

Mack) was making an appeal to the

jury on her behalf, received the verdict of "acquittal without a movement of either features or muscles. Then she

slightly bent her head, and murmured,, " Thank you," in an almost inaudible voice. Some persons in the gallery broke into cheers and clapping of hands when the foreman announced, "We find her not guilty." This demonstration was immediately suppressed, but the relief from the tension of the previous moment was apparent in the hum of subdued conversation that swept the crowded wiit't-rooiii. Mrs. Baikie, when formally discharged and released from til? dock, was surrounded by her friends, whom she embraced and clasped by the hand, and as she left the court in company with her husband, the crowd, which still' gathered in knots about the front of the building and around (he gates,

made another demonstration in her favour. There were several remarkable features about the trial, which will go down as one of the most notable of recent years.