Spotlight Post: Misjudged Murderesses by Stephen Jakobi

Title: Misjudged Murderesses: Female Injustice in Victorian Britain
Author: Stephen Jakobi
Buy links: https://www.casemateipm.com/misjudged-murderesses.html#.XaDILW5FwWk
https://amzn.to/2C2NTfa
ISBN: 9781526741622
Pub Date: October 2019
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Price: $24.95
Description: Lacing tea with poison and slipping arsenic in to soup, this is what comes to mind we talk of murderesses of the Victorian age. Fuelled by a rumor-driven press and cases of notorious killers like Marry Ann Cotton, the ‘Angel of Death’, or Christiana Edmunds, the ‘Chocolate Cream Killer’, death by poisoning was a great anxiety of Victorian Britain.

But what about those women who were wrongly convicted? What about the suspects who fell victim of a biased jury and unrelenting press? In Misjudged Murderesses, Stephen Jakobi takes a forensic approach to examine the trials of six women falsely sentenced for crimes they didn’t commit. With the aid of primary sources, and in two cases the ready assistance of descendants and local journalists, the validity of their convictions is questioned. Highlighting common factors in poisoning cases that led to ostensible miscarriages of justice, Jakobi shines a light on a flawed and inconsistent legal system.

After Cambridge, Stephen Jakobi began a career in industry. His strong belief in justice led him to become a solicitor, working in private practice. In 1992 he founded the Human Rights organization Fair Trials International and was adviser to the European institutions on subjects ranging from Guantánamo to the European arrest warrant. He was awarded an OBE in 2005. Author of 'In the Mind of a Female Serial Killer (2017), Misjudged Murderesses is his second book.