Unjustified: George Wilson Part 2 or If the Boot Don’t Fit, You Must Acquit

Archie & Nettie Coble Slept Here

Part 1 can be found here - I could go into a lengthy discussion about the events leading up to George Wilson’s arrest but I would be distracted from the meat of the post and the awesome title I came up with for it.  So to save you all the suspense, George Wilson was jailed, “confessed,” and arrested, in that order.  In fact Wilson was held in a jail cell without a warrant or access to council for five days before the alleged confession.  Found in the Wilson’s tent was a piece of paper, believed to be soaked with blood.  The Thurston County Sheriff, George Gaston also took measurements of Wilson’s boots.  This was in order to match up to the boot prints found outside the Coble’s cottage window.  Another bit of “evidence” was an alleged conversation between Mrs. Coble and a neighbor about George Wilson’s behavior toward Mrs. Coble.  But the most damning evidence the prosecution would produce, indeed the entire case hinged on it, was the alleged confession of George Wilson.

Unjustified: George Wilson, Part 1

Not "Mother of the Year"

In the pursuit of justice, sometimes our courts get it wrong.  Most outside observers would say defendants such as OJ and Casey Anthony got away with murder.  In the case of Anthony, justice prevailed.  There is a reason why there are so many layers and technical specs when it comes to evidence presented in a court of law.  Like the verdict or not, the judge in the Anthony case would not allow certain facts, such as Ms. Anthony's partying ways in the wake of her daughter's disappearance, to be admitted as evidence since it had no bearing on the ultimate question in the case: Did Casey Anthony murder her daughter?  And so the case came down to the jury's opinion about new, untested science in order to make a decision and the result is Ms. Anthony will now live in an undisclosed location for the rest of her life (maybe).  A Criminology professor of mine put it this way (paraphrasing): "In the United States, justice is for accused, truth is for the victims."  When the court system seeks justice for the victim, many  times, not only is the accused run over but the truth is often made victim as well.  Case in point:  Mr. George Wilson, Rainier, Washington, 1911.