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Evidence Keyed to Park
Shepard v. United States
Citation:
290 U.S. 96 (1993)Facts
The defendant was in love with another woman, and wished to make her his wife. There is circumstantial evidence to sustain a finding by the jury that to win himself his freedom he turned to poison and murder. Even so, guilt was contested and conflicting inferences are possible. The defendant asks the Court to hold that by the acceptance of incompetent evidence the scales were weighted to his prejudice. The evidence complained of was offered by the Government. On May 22, 1929, there was a conversation in the absence of the defendant between Mrs. Shepard, then ill in bed, and Clara Brown, her nurse. The patient asked the nurse to go to the closet in the defendant’s room and bring a bottle of whisky. She asked whether enough was left to make a test for the presence of poison. And then she added the words “Dr. Shepard has poisoned me.”
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