The jury acquitted, and Wellman, aghast, followed them downstairs to inquire how such a thing were possible.  The jurors said that they had agreed to disclose nothing of their deliberations.

“But,” explained Wellman, “you see, in a way I am your attorney, and I want to know how to do better next time.  She had offered to plead guilty if she could get off with twenty years!”

The abashed jury slunk downstairs in silence and the secret of their deliberations remains as yet untold.

In spite of such cases, where guilty women have been acquitted through maudlin sentiment or in response to popular clamor, nothing could be more erroneous than the idea that few women who are brought to the bar of justice are made to suffer for their offences.  Thus, although no woman has suffered the death penalty in New York County in twenty years, the average number of convictions for crime is practically the same for women as for men in proportion to the number indicted.  The last unreversed conviction of a woman for murder in the first degree was that of Chiara Cignarale, in May, 1887.  Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.  Since then thirty women have been actually tried before juries for homicide with the following results: 

Convicted of murder in first degree...........0
Acquitted “...................................7
"      " murder in second degree...........3
"      " manslaughter in first degree.....10
"      " manslaughter in seconds degree...10

Total.......................................30

The percentage of convictions to acquittals is as follows: 

Convictions Acquittals Convictions Acquittals
Per Cent Per Cent
1887-1907 ......23........7..........77..........23

It is distinctly interesting to compare this with the table showing the results of all the homicide trials for the past eight years irrespective of the sex of the defendants: 

Convictions Acquittals Convictions Acquittals
Per Cent Per Cent

1900.............5.......12...........29.........71
1901............17.......17...........50.........50
1902............15.......11...........58.........42
1903............24........8...........75.........25
1904............19.......14...........58.........42
1905............18.......13...........58.........42
1906............21.......22...........49.........51
1907............16.......10...........62.........38

Total..........135......107.....Aver. 55...Aver. 45

The reader will observe that the percentage of convictions to acquittals of women defendants averages twenty-two per cent greater than the percentage for both sexes.  A more elaborate table would show that where the defendants are men there are a greater proportionate number of acquittals, but more verdicts in higher degrees.  A verdict of manslaughter in the second degree in the case of a man charged with murder is infrequent, but convictions of murder in the second degree are exceedingly common.