The prisoner had stoutly denied knowing anything of the homicide.
Shortly before the date set for the execution, another man turned up who admitted that he had committed the crime and made the fullest sort of a confession.

A new trial was thereupon granted by the Appellate Court, and the convict, on the application of the prosecuting attorney, was discharged and quickly made himself scarce.

It then developed that apart from the prisoner's own confession there was practically nothing to connect him with the crime.

Under a statute making such evidence obligatory in order to render a confession sufficient for a conviction, the prisoner had to be discharged.
In the case of Mabel Parker, a young woman of twenty, charged with the forgery of a large number of checks, many of them for substantial amounts, her husband made an almost successful attempt to procure her acquittal by means of a new variation of the old game.

Mrs.Parker, after her husband had been arrested for passing one of the bogus checks, had been duped by a detective into believing that the latter was a fellow criminal who was interested in securing Parker's release.