Post #8: State v. Rehberg

          In the State vs. Rehberg case of 1885, a 19th century jury would have concluded that Edward Rehberg was guilty of abusing his daughter, Clara, and consequentially, caused her death in the second degree. First, cultural beliefs about children of the 19th century would have left little room for doubt in Edward's favor. Second, a jury of the 19th century would never have acquitted him because he came from a working class family and in general, society did not look highly upon you if you were not of a higher class standing. A jury of that time would have judged Edward Rehberg before they had ever heard his testimony, or the testimony of the witnesses; nor would they have believed the deposition of a child. Third, due to the legal status of children in the 19th century, and not only that, but the ideals held about childhood then, would have prevented a jury from believing a child's testimony. Young children were often seen as immoral, dishonest, disobedient, and i gnorant to the difference between right and wrong. Even a deposition as blunt as Clara Rehberg's on her deathbed would have been thought of as insubstantial evidence: "She whipped me (my step-mother) with a stick of wood and with a stove lifter, and then she went to the corral and got a strap, and whipped me with that on the face and legs and all over.-She had new shoes on when she came back from town (Helena)-she took them off, put on wooden shoes, and kicked me with them. My step-mother's name is Louisa. She whipped me at one time at the corral on my father's ranch,-then she whipped me in the house,-then she threw a bucket of water over me." [1] Such disturbing and blunt statements taken from a child as she died could not be ignored by our petite jury of the 21st century; nor could we ignore the overwhelming evidence which brings reasonable doubt to our minds that the Defendant, Edward Rehberg, did not abuse his daughter, Clara; thereby, making him not guilty o n the charge of second degree murder.

          Aside from Clara's deposition, there is an abundance of evidence which gives reasonable doubt as to whether or not her father abused her. The first amount of proof which makes Edward not guilty is the testimony given by Joe Tiebow. The witness produced by the defense, testified that he had been with Edward all day Sunday; that he and Rehberg never parted at all: "Q. Now, Mr. Tiebow, could Mr. Rehberg have whipped that child that day or beat her or abused her without your knowledge of it ? A. He did not leave me at all, and I cannot say that he was in the house."[2]

        The Second proof came from Emma Rehberg, a witness to the prosecution, stating that she had seen Clara with Louisa Sunday morning. Emma had been downstairs and upstairs a few times during the day, not seeing Clara while she was upstairs. Emma stated at one point that: "I was downstairs part of the time, and part of the time upstairs that afternoon. I saw Clara after dinner,-she was in the kitchen with Lousia, little Emil was out of doors, I was upstairs about an hour and a half taking care of the baby. I did not see Clara while I was upstairs. When I came down, she was sleeping on the lounge." [3] A few minutes after Clara awoke, Emma recounted that she saw Clara talking with her father, Edward, who took Clara immediately to town (Helena) after speaking with her on her condition.

             The third proof which gives reasonable doubt to the case are the testimonies of various doctors who all claimed that it would be possible for Clara to move around for a while after sustaining the injuries; however, once a state of rest had been entered (her sleeping) for a certain period of time, movement would become hindered by excruciating pain. This supports that Clara could have been beaten early Sunday morning, and she would have been able to continue helping Louisa with dinner. There is proof also that Clara was in extreme pain because both Joe Tiebow and Emma Rehberg testified that Clara could not get into the wagon herself and had to be helped. Dr. Van Holzschuher gave testimony when Clara was brought to his office, her father: "...asked a gentleman passing to help the child down" from the wagon. [4] This further supports that Clara was in extreme pain after her period of rest following the sustainment of her injuries.

          These proofs listed above are only a three points of the overwhelming evidence stacked in Edward Rehberg's favor. All proofs given bring reasonable doubt to the case of State vs. Rehberg making Edward not guilty on the charge of second degree murder. As a jury of the 21st century, our group believes that Edward was not guilty; however, a jury of the 19th century surely would have found Edward guilty. Due to cultural ideals of children and how they act during childhood, the minds of a 19th century jury would have been clouded and decided before this trial ever began. Our group, not knowing the outcome of this trial, can only hope the jury which debated over this case saw the reasonable doubt in the evidence and looked for the correct suspect of Clara Rehberg's tragic death.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Works Cited:

Petrik, Paula. Redaer: HIST 120, "State vs. Rehberg (1885)." Fall 2005, 2-35.

[1]Petrik, Paula. Redaer: HIST 120, "State vs. Rehberg (1885)." Fall 2005, 32.

[2]Petrik, Paula. Redaer: HIST 120, "State vs. Rehberg (1885)." Fall 2005, 27.

[3]Petrik, Paula. Redaer: HIST 120, "State vs. Rehberg (1885)." Fall 2005, 18.

[4]Petrik, Paula. Redaer: HIST 120, "State vs. Rehberg (1885)." Fall 2005, 22.

Images:

http://www.fcmcclerk.com/jury/tbj_jury.jpg

http://photosbymartin.com/images/pcd3321/hay-tree-67.3.jpg
http://www.hatsofflynden.com/images/Flags%20Of%20The%20World/Red%20Cross.JPG

Comments

[Kimberly]

This comment is not for the group essay it is for your photo album, which I noticed you forgot to put an entry for.

On one note, I will just let you know that you spelled 'reader' wrong in all of your groups cites for the last essay...Just wondering if you knew that...

Moving right along...I would like to say that this is the hardest blog I have had to comment on yet. I really enjoyed your photo album and I think that you picked a really ineresting and well researched topic.

I noticed that your citations seemed to be a little out of format, but then again whose were? In any case I think a little help with citing will fix that. I was not able to retrace your steps though, which put a damper on my excitement over the excellent form of this blog.

I think the only other real bone I'd like to pick about your blog is about your thesis. It is hard to prove that someone is competent, and I did not know exactly what you were trying to show the reader with that thesis. What I mean is that you need a stronger, more stable and proveable thesis statement.

In any case, I really enjoyed your blog and I think that this was the best photo album I have looked at yet. Great job.

[Kath Henshaw]

This comment pertains to blog #7, not blog #8. I could not find a place to add my comment to your photo album so I am putting it here. Again, this comment has nothing to do with the jury blog but I couldn’t find anywhere else to put it so you could see my comment!

Congratulations on the creation of your first photo album blog. It is evident that you spent a good deal of time on your blog because the writing portion was well thought out and very informative. I think that you chose appropriate pictures for the assignment; however, I don’t think you took full advantage of what you were working with. Your blog could have been improved if you had drawn the reader’s attention to something in the picture that he or she would have otherwise missed. Also, the pictures in the photo albums are supposed to be visually appealing and prove the thesis. I can tell that you tried to do this but, in future blogs, you may want to make more of an effort to fully utilize your visuals. In your introduction you break into first person by using the words “our” and “us.” It is important to remember that blogs should remain in third person. In order to stay away from plagiarism, it is important that you use citations indicating where you got your pictures and facts from. Citations are lacking throughout your assignment. Even so, I enjoyed reading your blog.

[Bush]

I agree with the author.
http://zocoor.cn/news479.html nascar.com sports.yahoo.com
http://zocoor.cn/news997.html sbc yahoo outlook express setup
http://zocoor.cn/news1994.html yahoo game troubleshooting
http://zocoor.cn/news54.html msn touchpoint
http://zocoor.cn/news585.html offensive msn names

If my message is undesirable, write the address of the site on intoxic@mail15.com

[FreeStoring]

hay!!
good project :)
senks :)

[Federtito]

Ie7ywJ Hi Rabzebuddy! Google.