Francis L. Wellman

Name: The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12
Author: Francis L. Wellman

The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (1903)

Summary

“The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12”, published in 1903, is a work by Francis L. Wellman. It explores elements such as morphine, morphine poisoning and Harris.

Quotes from The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (Francis L. Wellman)

Francis L. Wellman, The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (1903)

“ Counsel. "Do you wish to go out to the world as saying that you have never diagnosed a case of morphine poisoning excepting when you had an autopsy to exclude kidney disease?"
Witness. "I do not. I have not said so."
Counsel. "Then you have diagnosed a case on the symptoms alone, yes? or no? I want a categorical answer."
Witness (sparring) . "I would refuse to answer that question categorically; the word 'diagnosed' is used with two different meanings. One has to make what is known as a 'working diagnosis' when he is called to a case, not a positive diagnosis." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis L. Wellman, The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (1903)

“ But often-times the means a criminal uses in order to conceal his deed are the very means that Providence employs to reveal the sin that lies hidden in his soul. Harris failed to foresee that it was the preservation of these capsules that would really convict him. Miss Potts had taken all that he had given her, and no one could ever have been certain that it was not the druggist's awful mistake, had not these retained capsules been analyzed. When Harris emptied one capsule and reloaded it with morphine, he had himself become the druggist. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis L. Wellman, The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (1903)

“ His direct testimony was to the effect that—basing his opinion partly upon wide reading of the literature of the subject, and what seemed to him to be the general consensus of professional opinion about it, and "very largely on his own experience"—no living doctor can distinguish the coma of morphine from that of kidney disease; and as the theory of the criminal law is that, if the death can be equally as well attributed to natural causes as to the use of poison, the jury would be bound to give the prisoner the benefit of the doubt and acquit him. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis L. Wellman, The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (1903)

“ Buchanan's trial that, during the Harris trial and the examination of the medical witnesses, presumably the witness whose examination has been given above, Buchanan had said to his messmates that "Harris was a ——— fool, he didn't know how to mix his drugs. If he had put a little atropine with his morphine, it would have dilated the pupil of at least one of his victim's eyes, and no doctor could have deposed to death by morphine." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis L. Wellman, The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (1903)

“ For example, the rule forbidding the presentation to the jury of anything that was said by the victim of a homicide, even to witnesses surrounding the death-bed, unless the victim in express terms makes known his own belief that he cannot live, and that he has abandoned all hope or expectation of recovery before he tells the tale of the manner in which he was slain, or the causes that led up to it, has allowed many a guilty prisoner, if not to escape entirely, at least to avoid the full penalty for the crime he had undoubtedly committed. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis L. Wellman, The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (1903)

“ Even to this day—ten years after the trial—there is a widespread belief among men, perhaps more especially among women, who did not attend the trial, but simply listened to the current gossip of the day and followed the newspaper accounts of the court proceedings, that Harris was innocent of the crime for the commission of which his life was forfeited to the state. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis L. Wellman, The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (1903)

“ Gradually they were forced to abandon all but two possible causes of death,—that by morphine poisoning and that by uremic poisoning. This narrowed the issue down to the question, Was it a large dose of morphine that caused death, or was it a latent kidney disease that was superinduced and brought to light in the form of uremic coma by small doses of morphine, such as the one-sixth of a grain admittedly contained in the capsules Harris administered? In one case Harris was guilty ”

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Source: Wikisource

Francis L. Wellman, The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (1903)

“ Jerome had, however, secured the services of one physician who, of all the others in the country, had perhaps apparently best qualified himself by his writings and thirty years of hospital experience to speak authoritatively upon the subject. ”

Francis L. Wellman

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Quotes from The Art of Cross-Examination — Chapter 12 (Francis L. Wellman)

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