The Fight For Human Life
December 14, 1895
Summary
The Planet remains optimistic as the results of the trial of two women who were wrongly accused of a murder loom.
Transcription
The Lunenburg Case has attracted general attention, and continues to absorb the interest of the public.
It is becoming more plainly evident every day that the women condemned to die are innocent, the victim of a foul conspiracy. God knows we have done the very best we could to establish that fact, and the counsel for the accused have left no stone unturned to secure a favorable decision in the courts of the commonwealth.
We have watched every movement, and during the interesting contest have been at their sides observing their action and tendering encouragement in the performance of the delicate and difficult task.
We have not been mistaken in our estimate of the better class of Virginians. We have been more than once elated over a realization of our fondest hopes.
Still, the anxiety, born of a knowledge of the dangerous nature of the case has tended to unstring our nerves and make us lose that self-possession which has been one of the most remarkable characteristics of our being.
Time and again we have gone to the prisoners in the court-room and the cell-door at the prison and encouraged them to hope. When good news came we were the first to transmit it.
The fight has been a long and tedious one.
The would-be murderers of Lunenburg County have exhausted every means to encompass the destruction of the innocent. We have contended with them thus far; we shall be with them to the end.
This case contains a dark secret, and it is plainly apparent the principal in this dastardly Pollard murder is yet in the confines of that benighted county.
The decision in the case may have been handed down by the Supreme Court before these lines reach the public, but whether it be favorable or unfavorable we shall stand by these helpless creatures to the end.
Well said the counsel, “There never was such a case, and never such a trial.”
Virginia cannot afford to permit the outrage. Jails, penitentiaries and the gallows were built for the guilty and not the innocent.
“Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish,” we are in this contest to win.
With Virginians, Right, Truth and Justice and God on our side, how can we fail? Lynch-law must go!
It is becoming more plainly evident every day that the women condemned to die are innocent, the victim of a foul conspiracy. God knows we have done the very best we could to establish that fact, and the counsel for the accused have left no stone unturned to secure a favorable decision in the courts of the commonwealth.
We have watched every movement, and during the interesting contest have been at their sides observing their action and tendering encouragement in the performance of the delicate and difficult task.
We have not been mistaken in our estimate of the better class of Virginians. We have been more than once elated over a realization of our fondest hopes.
Still, the anxiety, born of a knowledge of the dangerous nature of the case has tended to unstring our nerves and make us lose that self-possession which has been one of the most remarkable characteristics of our being.
Time and again we have gone to the prisoners in the court-room and the cell-door at the prison and encouraged them to hope. When good news came we were the first to transmit it.
The fight has been a long and tedious one.
The would-be murderers of Lunenburg County have exhausted every means to encompass the destruction of the innocent. We have contended with them thus far; we shall be with them to the end.
This case contains a dark secret, and it is plainly apparent the principal in this dastardly Pollard murder is yet in the confines of that benighted county.
The decision in the case may have been handed down by the Supreme Court before these lines reach the public, but whether it be favorable or unfavorable we shall stand by these helpless creatures to the end.
Well said the counsel, “There never was such a case, and never such a trial.”
Virginia cannot afford to permit the outrage. Jails, penitentiaries and the gallows were built for the guilty and not the innocent.
“Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish,” we are in this contest to win.
With Virginians, Right, Truth and Justice and God on our side, how can we fail? Lynch-law must go!
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Cord Fox
Citation
“The Fight For Human Life,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed February 19, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1506.