Sheldon and others had promised to petition the legislature for a pardon if Jesse confessed. The record does not show that Skinner objected to Merrill’s discussion of the oral confessions, however.18


about the oral confessions of Jesse and Ste- phen, but when Stephen’s written confes- sion was offered, Richard Skinner objected, and the Court refused, “it appearing that some promises of favor had been made to him previous to the confession being made … ”17


Later in the trial, af-


ter William Farnsworth was offered to testify about what Stephen had told him when they were alone, Skinner objected again, on the grounds that Farnsworth’s conversation fol- lowed a meeting with Samuel C. Raymond where Raymond told Stephen he should confess. The Court allowed Farnsworth’s testimony, and then Skinner unexpected- ly moved for the reading and admission of Stephen’s written confession.


The most important missing element of the Colvin murder case is the lost instruc- tion of Judge Doolittle. He charged the jury on the law of homicide.19


The record states,


“The Judge charged in relation to the con- fessions that no weight should be attached to a confession incited by hope or fear, and left it for the jury to determine whether the confessions in this case were so influ- enced.”20 Aside from the confessions, the evidence


was largely circumstantial, other than the confessions. The State’s witnesses brought out the various statements of Jesse and Ste- phen that pointed to their guilt, including Stephen’s curious answer to whether he had killed Russell, when he was reported to have said he hadn’t taken Russell’s “main life.”21 The discovery of Colvin’s jackknife, hat, two buttons, the bones, and toenail was intro- duced. The defense concentrated on the discrepancies of evidence, the possibility that Colvin had just strayed away, and of course the coercions that preceded the con- fessions.22


The jury took an hour to reach a verdict, and the sentencing followed one hour lat- er, the execution scheduled for January 28, 1820.23


turned to Manchester.24


On December 22, Russell Colvin re- A few days later, he


left Manchester for New Jersey, although he did stop in Albany to make an appearance at a museum.25


Jesse and Stephen were re-


leased. The recriminations followed.26 The Boorn case is mentioned only once in the subsequent reported decisions of the Vermont Supreme Court. In State v. Conklin (1937), Justice Leighton Slack, affirming a jury verdict for embezzling bank funds that depended on a confession. He wrote,


it is a well–established rule that generally


speaking, confessions


which are not voluntary, but are made either under the fear of punishment if they are not made, or in the hope of escaping punishment if they are made, are not received in evidence, because experience shows that they are liable to be influenced by these motives (see Boorn case tried in Bennington county in 1819 where a respondent was convicted of murder, on full confession, when no one had been killed) … 27


How could this happen? How can a system of justice convict innocent people? How could a man almost be hung for his loose words? Who has not felt, on hearing this story, that it could happen to you? They nearly hung him. Thankfully, as George Warwelle wrote in 1920, “The annals of our criminal jurisprudence … are not stained with the crime of judicial murder by execution of that sentence.”28 Rev. Lemuel Haynes, who attended the Boorns as a spiritual adviser while they were in jail in Manchester, could not accept that the Court or the process was at fault:


The imperfection of human nature, under peculiar advantages is clearly exhibited. Perhaps in no case were circumstantial evidence more clear and conclusive, or greater unanimity in court and jury, or coincidence in the public mind. But few who did not hesitate to bring in their verdict


10 THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • SUMMER 2012 www.vtbar.org


Ruminations: The Trials of Jesse and Stephen Boorn


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