Maderan didn’t trust a jury

For The Madera Tribune

Judge Stanley Murray found a woman guilty.

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On March 2, 1946, a neatly dressed woman stood beside her attorney, John D. Boyle, and intently searched Judge Stanley Murray’s face for some hint of what was to come. She had waived her right to a jury trial, preferring to put her fate in the hands of one man in a robe instead of 12 of her fellow Maderans. She had decided to roll the judicial dice when the District Attorney charged her with the murder of Charles Smith.

Geneva Wallace, the accused woman and consort of the deceased, lived in a small house with Smith on a cotton farm about seven miles from town on Madera Avenue. He was a farm labor contractor, and she ran a small liquor and grocery store. On the day in question, December 8, 1945, Geneva was keeping a close eye on Smith as he paid his cotton workers their daily wages in cash. She suspected that he would come up short, and it would be just a matter of time until he turned to her for money.

Sure enough, when Smith ran out of money, he called for Geneva to replenish his supply from the cash box in the store. This Geneva steadfastly refused to do, so Smith bounded out of his chair on the porch and went inside to fetch it himself. This proved to be a fatal mistake.