Trial and Appeal
Wallace consistently denied having anything to do with the crime, but was charged with murder and stood trial at Liverpool Assizes. Despite the evidence against him being purely circumstantial, and the statement of a local milk delivery boy — who was certain he had spoken to Julia Wallace only minutes before her husband would have had to leave to catch his tram — Wallace was found guilty after an hour's deliberation, and sentenced to death.
In an unprecedented move, the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the verdict on the grounds that it was "not supported by the weight of the evidence", and Wallace walked free. The decision meant that the jury was wrong — appeals are usually brought on the basis of bad decisions by the presiding judge at the original trial, or by the emergence of new evidence.
After his successful appeal, (1931) 23 Cr App Rep 32, Wallace returned to his job in insurance but ill health and a whispering campaign soon led to his retirement, and he moved to the Wirral, dying in 1933 in Clatterbridge Hospital.
No other person was charged with the murder and it remains officially unsolved.
Read more about this topic: William Herbert Wallace
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