George Hamilton
Racine
County, Wisconsin
Date of Crime: December 15, 1917
George E. Hamilton, alias Eli J. Long, was convicted in 1918
of the murder of Edward B. Warner. Warner was shot during a robbery of
the Standard Oil Station that he managed on the corner of Seventh and Main
Sts. in Racine, WI. A 14-year-old boy named Mervil Peil, who was on
the sidewalk of the street opposite the oil station, saw the apparent
murderer as he ran from the oil station to the sidewalk in front of the
station, then north until he disappeared. The boy picked out Hamilton
as “the man who resembled him most” from about a half dozen other men at the
police station that evening. The identification was not positive, the boy
asserting that “his (Hamilton's) height was about the same, and his dress,
and the build of the man.” Peil repeated his statements at trial, as
did police officers Yanne and Harms, whose hearsay accounts presumably served
to corroborate Peil's testimony in the eyes of the jury.
A fellow prisoner of Hamilton's, named Larsen, testified he heard him
praying at night in the jail and caught the words: “Oh, God, why did I kill
this man? Oh, God, forgive me.” It was also proved that Hamilton had in 1908
had been convicted in Michigan of attempted murder. The state
introduced case evidence from this conviction as presented in a Michigan
Supreme Court decision that discharged Hamilton from imprisonment for the
conviction. The state also presented evidence of a several lies
Hamilton had told police. The lies had no apparent case relevance
other than establishing Hamilton's willingness to be untruthful. Hamilton testified he first heard about the shooting while waiting in line
at the post office. A boy, identified as Mervil Peil, had crowded
ahead of him in line and had told the postmaster of the shooting.
Shortly after Hamilton's conviction, his attorney filed a motion for a new
trial in April 1918. The attorney learned that the turnkey at the
jail, where Hamilton was confined, and two inmates had personal knowledge
that Hamilton's cell door was closed on the night when the witness Larsen
testified that it was open and that he heard the declarations of Hamilton
while praying. The trial court dismissed the motion for want of a proper
showing of diligence.
In May 1919, the attorney filed another motion for a new trial. The
attorney discovered that Gertrude Gressing, 20, and Marion Gressing, an
older sister, had at the time of the shooting been walking north on East
Main St., opposite the oil station. Immediately after the shooting
they saw a man exit the station and walk westerly. About three hours
later, at the request of police, the sisters took the same position on the
street from which they witnessed the man exit the station. They then
watched a man, accompanied by police, exit the station in the same direction
that they saw a man go after the shooting. In the sisters' opinion,
the man they saw accompanied by police was not the same man they saw exit
the station immediately after the shooting. Since Hamilton was the man
who was accompanied by police, the sisters' statements were exculpatory of
him.
The Racine newspapers had referred to and published the fact that the
Gressing sisters heard the shooting and saw the man as related above, and it
appears that the public generally heard of this fact and generally discussed
it. The trial court dismissed this second motion because it did not
show due diligence and in the court's opinion there was no reasonable
probability that the new evidence would have caused a different verdict in
the case.
Hamilton subsequently appealed his conviction to a higher court on the
following grounds: (1) The state's introduction of case evidence from
a prior conviction was improper. (2) The hearsay testimony of officers Yanne
and Harms was improper. (3) The trial court's refusal to grant a new trial
based on newly discovered evidence was improper. Hamilton also argued
that the evidence against him was insufficient to support a conviction. The court reversed Hamilton's conviction in 1920. It is not known if
an attempt was made to retry Hamilton, but references list him (or Eli J.
Long, Hamilton's actual legal name at the time of the crime) as exonerated
in 1920. [10/08]
________________________________
Reference: Hamilton
v. State
Posted in:
Victims of the State,
Wisconsin Cases
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