Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Court TV started a new case this week. A 73 year-old woman is accused of bludgeoning to death her 78 year-old husband.

Not only are the ages rare for a crime of this sort but the trial, being held in Vermont, has an interesting factor. The jury is allowed to question the witnesses, something I had heard of but not seen before.

They don't question the witness directly but submit their questions to the judge. She rules upon their admission and asks the questions herself.

Wow, what would we have given to question Lizzie if she had ever took the stand at her trial!!! For that matter, anyone who testified at her trial.

On a Lizzie note, the chief investigating detective who was in charge of the crime scene and collection of evidence is named David Tetrault. Lizzie had an employee named Joseph Tetrault.

I hobbled by to see if anyone was discussing this trial...as it unfolds I'm surprised at some similarities...no murder weapon, dead body in the driveway, seemingly unsecured crime scene (a detective mentioned yesterday that he had not checked the cellar yet and had not known if it had been checked for the culprit), the defendant's lack of tears and dignified posture, witnesses coming forth days later saying oh yeah she told me she did it...this should be interesting. I like the idea of the jury being able to ask questions and wonder how it must throw counsel off at times.

The defendant in this case was found guilty a short while ago of Murder in the Second degree following some 13 hours of deliberations. Sentencing has been stayed for six to eight weeks, and the subject remanded to custody of the state.

A most interesting case. The defendent rivaled Lizzie for the title of "sphynx of coldness" at times. Very stoic.

There were quite a few things similar to the Borden murders as Pippi mentioned above.

I didn't see enough of it to judge the verdict. From what I did see, the case seemed weak, similar in a lot of respects to the case against Lizzie. The time of death problem was especially important in this case.