Grady County GaArchives News.....Woman Acquitted Of Murdering Her Child April 11 1919
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Janet Sumner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002510 June 15, 2004, 6:12 pm

The Cairo Messenger 
The following news item will be read with much interest by the Messenger's many 
subscribers.  The article was taken from last Thursday afternoon's Albany 
Herald.  The woman in the case, a negro who resided about ten miles above Cairo 
was well known here:

"Mary Spence, the young negro woman from Grady county, who was tried twice at 
the term of Superior court just closed here for the alleged murder of her 
infant child, is today a free woman.  The jury engaged in the second trial of 
the case returned a verdict of acquittal last night about 12:30 o'clock.  The 
case was tried earlier in the week and a mistrial resulted.

The second trial began yesterday morning and a jury was secured by noon.  
Unusual in murder cases, counsel on each side agreed for the jury to go at 
large during the noon hour of court, with the usual instructions from the court 
as to discussion of the case.  The trial was resumed in the afternoon, but 
another recess was taken at 3 o'clock in order to allow the jury to attend the 
ball game, after which the hearing was resumed.  At the supper hour, the jury 
again went at liberty.

Jury Visits Scene

Another unusual feature of the case was a visit made by the jury to the scene 
of the alleged crime, a rooming house in "Sandy Bottom."  The visit was agreed 
to by lawyers on both sides, and the members of the jury were, of course, 
accompanied by the attorneys, the officers of the court and the court itself.

Argument of the case began about 8:30 last night and this, together with Judge 
Harrell's charge, consumed about two hours.  It required two more hours for the 
jury to reach an agreement, it being reported that the first ballot showed 
about half of the jury for conviction with a recommendation to the mercy of the 
court.

The second trial of the case was more lengthy than the first and each side 
perhaps made a better showing than in the first trial.  The state introduced 
testimony from Jane Robinson, the negro woman in whose lodging house the woman 
was staying, police officer Roberts and Bailiff R. M. Denson who testified that 
the woman told them that she killed the child.  Davis also testified in the 
case stating that the child was fully developed.  He admitted on cross-
examination that the child might have bled to death.

The defendant introduced no testimony in her own behalf, relying on her own 
statement for acquittal.  She told of coming to Albany in company of G. W. 
Davis, to whom she had gone to school in Mitchell county and stopping at the 
lodging house where the crime was alleged to have been committed.  She said 
that she was alone and ill with influenza when the child was born and had 
little knowledge of how it happened, about ten o'clock at night, and that the 
next thing she remembered was the sun shining in her face the next morning.  
She stated that she would not deny that she might have told Jane Robinson and 
the officers that she killed the child, but that she had no recollection of any 
such statement; that she was suffering from high fever and was really not 
responsible at the time.  She contended that the baby was dead the first time 
she remembers having seen it and that she put the body away through fear that 
she might be charged with its death.

Solicitor Bell prosecuted the case while the woman was defended by Redferarn 
and J. W. Kieve."


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