The Daily Dispatch: March 7, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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Circumstantial evidence.

--A singular case was brought to light in Baltimore Tuesday which will be added to the warnings agains the danger of convicting criminals upon circumstantial evidence. A negro named George Orem made a dying confession that he committed a murder for which Cyphus, also colored, was hung some years since. Cyphus, it will be recollected, was hung at the same time with Gambrill, Corrie and Crop, convicted of the murder of police officers Benton and Rigdon, and died strongly protesting his innocence, declaring that he had been mistaken for another man. The evidence against him was then thought to be conclusive, but it now appears that the poor fellow's protestations were entirely truthful. While on the scaffold he protested his innocence of the blood of King in the following language:

‘ "Gentlemen — You see here another innocent man, who is going to be hung. They have given me a false name--one that I never was known by — and convicted me for what I didn't do. But I am going home to Heaven to meet my God. My way is all clear there. So just good-bye, my friends.".

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