GIANINI CASE

HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION PROPOUNDED BY THE PROSECUTION

Q. Doctor, kindly assume that the defendant had been a pupil taught by Lida Beecher in the public school at Poland and harbored against her a desire for revenge because she had punished him; that he stated to people of his acquaintance that he would get even with her; that on Tuesday, March 24th, 1914, he stated to a man with whom he was working that if he had a revolver he would shoot her; that several days previously he had this wrench, Ex. 45, in his possession and stated to a man who asked him what he was going to do with it, that he had use for it; that he met Miss Beecher, who was a young lady about twenty years old, five feet three inches in height, weighing about 126 pounds, wearing upon the head this cap, Ex. 26, and as an outer garment, this raincoat, Ex. 29 (showing to witness), Wednesday, March 25th, 1914, about seven P.M. in the Post Office at Poland, Post Office in the village of Poland, the location of which is indicated on this map, Ex. 1, to which I now call your attention (indicating); walked with her and Miss Clark, a teacher, from the Post Office along Cold Brook Street to a point on the southerly side of the street opposite the residence of James D. Countryman, the location of which is also shown on the map at a point to which I now call your attention (indicating), and that during that walk the defendant asked Miss Beecher when she was coming up to see his father, and upon receiving the answer that she did not know, said, “Aw, I don’t believe you intend to come at all; you will wait until summer time and go home and then it will be too late”; that on the following evening, Thursday, he again met Miss Beecher at or near the Post Office and asked her to go up to his house and see his folks about going to school and she replied that she could not that night, that she was going to prayer meeting, that she would go the next night; that on the following day, Friday, he provided himself with the knife, Ex. 48, for the occasion, and with the intention of killing her, sharpened it for that purpose; that he met Miss Beecher about seven P.M. on the evening of Friday, March 27th, near the Post Office and walked with her along the south side of Cold Brook Street to the foot of Buck Hill, which Buck Hill road is also shown on this map, a distance of 2006 feet; that they then proceeded together along up Buck Hill, he getting her to accompany him by telling her that his father lived up over the hill, had moved up there two or three weeks before; that they went on part way up the hill, and Miss Beecher hesitated and said it was farther up than she thought it was, she did not think she would go any farther, and the defendant said to her, “It is not but a little ways farther”; that when they got to a point on the hill distant about 4198 feet from the Post Office, she hesitated and said, “It is dark and I see no houses, no light, don’t think I will go any farther, will write your father a letter in regard to this school matter”; that as she stopped he stepped back of her, hit her on the head with this monkey wrench, Ex. 45, which weighs 2 pounds 7¹⁵/16 ounces, which I now show to you, he at that time having as an outer garment this coat, and wearing this shirt, Ex. 49, which I now show to you; knocking her down, he hit her twice with it after she was down; that when he first hit her with the wrench, she did not cry out but moaned; that he then threw the wrench up over the fence on to the top of the bank, about 35 feet; that it was so dark he could not see; took the knife, Ex. 48, and as she was lying on the ground, hit her with it several times to be sure to finish her, inflicting punctured wounds, one on the back of the neck just below the hair line ¾ of an inch in length, one on the left side of the neck about ½ of an inch long, cutting a hole in the external carotid artery 3 inches above the bifurcation of the common carotid artery; that he then grabbed the body, which was face down, by the right foot and dragged it across the road under a barbed-wire fence, down the hill back of a bush to the swale; that he took hold of the right foot because he did not want to get blood on his hands so that his finger prints could be taken; that he ran immediately from the body to the Buck Hill road and came out on to it a few rods nearer Poland than the point where he dragged the body under the fence, ran down the road some distance, and a team or sleigh came along and he stopped running and waited until after that team got by him; that he reached his father’s house, which is shown on this map, Ex. 1, and the location of which I call your attention to (indicating), at 7:30 and would have reached it sooner if he had not fallen down four or five times on the way home; that he went into the house and put the knife, off from which he had wiped the blood in the snow, in the pantry drawer; that he was sent on an errand to the house of Thomas Owens, on Cold Brook Street, which is also shown on this map, Ex. 1, to the location of which I now call your attention (indicating), to return some books of samples of wall paper, and to give Mr. or Mrs. Owens a one-dollar bill and a soap order, to which it was pinned; that he ran down the street, threw the books on to the veranda floor near the kitchen door, ran down Cold Brook Street to South Main Street, and tried to get the freight train which passed south on the M. & M. railroad; that he ran back to his father’s house and arrived there a little after eight, took off his shoes, put on his slippers, read the newspaper a little while, and went to bed; that he arose about six o’clock the next morning; left his father’s house, went to Sam Hutchinson’s, by whom he was employed, and whose residence is also shown on this Ex. 1, at the location to which I now call your attention (indicating), went to the barn, assisted in doing the chores, went in to breakfast, said nothing, left there the coat, Ex. 41, which was then substantially in the same condition as it is now, and to its condition, especially on the back, I call your attention, and this being the coat which he wore the evening before, which I now hand to you and call your attention to (indicating) the condition of, put on another coat, and started down the railroad track towards Herkimer, which is on the line of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad, and some fourteen miles from Poland, intending then to go away from Poland; that he was apprehended at Newport, a place distant about four miles from Poland and between there and Herkimer, and brought back in a cutter by Mr. Newman, whom he had known for several years; that on the drive from Newport to Poland Newman asked him if he had heard what happened at Poland, and defendant replied he hadn’t; when asked if he had seen anything of Miss Beecher the night before, said he had not; when asked by Newman if he had heard that Miss Beecher was murdered or killed, defendant said, “No,” and on Newman’s saying, “They are looking for you for it,” defendant said, “They can’t give me but ten years, can they?”; that as they drove into the village of Poland and turned from South Main Street into Cold Brook Street, near the Post Office, there were some rigs coming down the hill, and defendant said, “They are coming off the hill with her now”; that in the afternoon of the same day he voluntarily made, signed, and swore to the following statement with reference to the matter.[3]State, Doctor, basing your reply upon the hypothesis stated in the question, whether or not, in your opinion, the defendant, at the time he struck Miss Beecher with the wrench, understood that he had no right to do it?

Mr. McIntyre: Don’t answer. We object to the question in that it only recites the revolting details of the alleged crime and that when the question was being propounded to the witness upon the stand, counsel for the State exhibited the knife, the wrench, the coat, the hat, and other things in evidence in rather a dramatic way before the jury.

We object to the question upon the ground that it does not contain all the essential features in this case bearing upon the crime.

We object to the question upon the ground that the hypothetical question fails to include the condition of the defendant’s mother at the time of his birth; it fails to include the fact that the first child was an idiot during his lifetime; it fails to disclose the conduct and deportment of the defendant from the time of his birth down to the commission of this crime.

We submit respectfully that the hypothetical question is a garbled statement of that which has transpired during this case and can have but one effect—to bias and prejudice the minds of the jurors. And I submit it is incompetent, immaterial and irrelevant and improper, in addition.

The Court: Objection overruled.

Mr. McIntyre: Exception, sir.

Q. Have you got the conclusion, the concluding portion of my question in mind?

A. Would you repeat it?

Q. Yes. State, Doctor, basing your reply upon the hypothesis stated in the question, whether or not, in your opinion, the defendant, at the time he struck Miss Beecher with the wrench, understood that he had no right to do it.

A. I cannot get any evidence from the facts recited there to enable me to determine.

Q. Well, can you determine from this question an opinion as an expert?

A. No, I cannot.