Brent Hardy
Mr. Ramsey
English 102
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the state wishes to prove to you that Minnie Wright is guilty of first-degree, premeditated, cold blooded murder. The state has ample evidence to show that Mrs. Wright planned out and executed the murder of her husband for a variety of reasons, and have provided witnesses to her actions and the condition of the home in which we found condemning evidence as to her motive. This provides the basis for the case we have presented to you and we intend to show how this comes together to prove that Mrs. Wright is guilty. Minnie Wright had the opportunity to kill her husband and get away with it, she knew how to make a noose and the best time to use it, and had been pushed to a point where she felt she had to kill him. She would’ve gotten away with, too, if Mr. Hale had not stopped by with his son, Henry, and found her. He told the sheriff immediately after that when he came in and asked to use the telephone, Mrs. Hale “looked queer.” (32) He also stated that she “looked like she didn’t know what she was going to do next.” (36)
Minnie Wright was a loner. This was not so in her earlier years. When she married her late husband he moved her into their current out-of-the-way home. While there, she was unfortunately isolated from all her peers. Even those who lived relatively close to her stopped coming after a few years, as Mrs. Wright began acting depressed and withdrawn. Nobody was around to hear any screams, and Mrs. Wright knew this. She knew that she was in the perfect position to kill her husband, a thorn in her side. She could perpetrate this crime and have plenty of time to dispose of any unsightly bodies. She naturally knew her husband was a heavy sleeper and that she could strangle him in his sleep without him waking up in time to stop her.
Mrs. Wright was also competent with knitting, a skill which would come in handy when constructing a noose. Construction is exactly what she did, too. It takes time and thought to make a noose, time with which Mrs. Wright must have thought about what she planned to do. The defense says to you that Mrs. Wright was in a state of temporary insanity. This simply is not the case. A woman in the grasp of inarticulate rage is not capable of the planning seen in this case. An insane woman would not have the presence of mind to construct a noose and murder her husband in his sleep, so long after “loosing her mind.” An insane woman would have killed her husband immediately after going temporarily insane, most likely resulting in his stopping her attempt and probably beating her. She bided her time, waiting for the perfect moment to take her husband’s life. This time came after he had been asleep for some time. Mrs. Wright was knitting, her mind wandering to the horrible act the planned to commit, when she decided he was deeply asleep. She crept up to the bedroom, placed a noose around his neck, and strangled him in cold blood.
This leads us to the question: Why did Mrs. Wright kill her husband? There are many reasons. Her husband had moved her away from her friends, into the house where she had the perfect opportunity to kill him, as we have already discussed. As you have already heard in Mrs. Hale’s testimony, Mrs. Wright used to sing in the church choir. However, she stopped because her husband wouldn’t like, quote, “a thing that sang.” She also said that Mrs. Wright “used to sing. He killed that too.” (244) It is apparent that Mrs. Wright lived with a man who, while he was considered decent, was not hospitable to her. She changed a lot after she got married, changing from a happy, nicely-dressed school girl into a sad, depressed woman with no cheer. However, Mrs. Wright kept her love for music, despite her husband’s attempt to stamp it out. She purchased a canary from a traveling salesman to have some sort of company. She just wanted a friend. However, Mr. Wright’s intolerance for music moved him to violently strangle the bird one night. This was the last abuse Mrs. Wright would take. She planned her husband’s death from that moment in the kitchen when she realized her bird’s singing had stopped. She committed the act after premeditation, deciding to rid herself of a husband who constantly belittled and abused her.
We have sufficiently proved that Minnie Wright is guilty of premeditated murder. Despite the fact that she was obviously troubled after the fact, this is only because she did not know what to do next. She had backed herself into a corner and broke her will. She knew that the police would become involved immediately, and that they would realize that there was no sign of forced entry. Nothing was stolen from the house because they had nothing of real value. Nobody had any real reason to kill John Wright, except for his wife. The ladies obviously thought she was guilty of this heinous act because they tried to protect their friend. They stole the body of the canary from the crime scene because they knew it would incriminate their peer. They played Judge and Jury for her and found her innocent, even though she had killed her husband. The only reason Minnie Wright is in court today is because they were found out. You, members of the jury, must see that Mrs. Wright is guilty of the murder of her husband, just as her peers did. We have proven that she had the time, the means, and the reason to kill her husband, and have shown that she had to have placed much forethought into the act. You have a decision to make now. Find Minnie Wright guilty so that she can serve the debt to society that she has incurred. The prosecution rests.
Word Count: 1014