5. Dominic Daley and James Halligan had a fair trial which lasted almost five minutes
Marcus Lyon was a Massachusetts farmer who was found dead on the road near Wilbraham in November 1805. Two Irishmen, James Halligan and Dominic Daley were reported to have been in the area at the time of the murder, and on November 12 they were arrested and turned over to a jailer in Northampton, charged with murder and highway robbery. The evidence against them consisted of their being strangers to the area where the crime was committed, and Irish immigrants to boot. For the next five months, they languished in the Northampton jail, denied either bail or consultation with an attorney. Their only outside contact was with the Catholic bishop of Boston.
Being Irish, Catholic, and itinerant was evidence enough for the good people of Northampton when the two were brought to trial in June 1806. Finally allowed to consult with an attorney just two days before their court appearance, they had little to offer in their defense and were convicted in a trial which lasted just under five minutes, with scarcely time for a jury to vote. Though the evidence was later determined to be so thin as to be hardly worthy of consideration, the two were executed by hanging, with over 15,000 enthusiastic witnesses crowding Northampton for the event on June 5, 1806. The pair were exonerated via gubernatorial proclamation on Saint Patrick’s Day, 1984.