The Attorney and the Servant: An Offer Be Could Not Refuse

By Mr Ghaz, January 31, 2010

The Attorney and the Servant: An Offer Be Could Not Refuse

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At 4:30pP.M. On May 2, 1962, Mrs. Robert Lee Kidd walked into the offices of the San Francisco Examiner and placed the following personal advertisement in the paper:

I don’t want my husband to die in the gas chamber for a crime he did not commit. I will therefore offer my services for 10 years as a cook, maid or housekeeper to any leading who will defend him and bring about his vindication. 522 Hayes St. UN 3- 9799.

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Mrs. Kidd’s husband was accused of the torture and murder, 18 months previously, of Albert Clarke, a 71- year- old San Francisco antiques dealer. Kidd’s bloody fingerprints had been found on the murder weapon, an ornate sword. But Mrs. Kidd insisted that her husband had been at home with on the night of the slaying.

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Kidd had already been tried twice for the murder. He had been convicted the first time, but the State Supreme Court ordered a new trial because the court had admitted prejudicial evidence. The second trial had ended in a hung jury. And now funds had run out. So Mrs. Kidd made her extraordinary offer to pay an attorney made her extraordinary offer to pay an attorney with a decade of domestic work.

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Mrs. Kidd’s advertisement appeared on May 3, 1962, along with an unexpected bonus: the Examiner featured the Kidd’s story on its front page. As a result of the publicity, one of San Francisco’s most eminent attorneys, Vincent Hallinan, took up the case.

Innocent or Guilty?

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In court, Hallinan first proved that the sword was not, in fact, the weapon. Then he showed how Kidd’s bloody fingerprints had gotten on it. Kidd and a friend had visited the antiques shop some time before the old man’s death, and Kidd had been accidentally hurt while fighting a mock duel with the weapon.

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After 11 hours of deliberation, the jury found Kidd not guilty. Both husband and wife went free: Hallinan graciously refused to take up Mrs. Kidd’s offer of 10 years of service.