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Authors: Dale Brawn
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Doctors before him were sure of their ground just as we are sure of ours today. They were wrong though. Doctors giving testimony in courts before Pasteur came didn’t perjure themselves when they said what they thought was truth. They didn’t perjure themselves but they were still wrong. Dr. Roussel insisted the arsenic had been administered to Brochu in more than one dose. But three other doctors who had treated Brochu during his last illness in the summer of 1937 said his sickness was acute indigestion. Now all four doctors were trained in medicine. They should know what they are talking about. But they don’t agree. Brochu was a drinker and evidence during his trial was that liquor often made him sick. Three doctors who treated him said he was poisoning himself through his liver and kidneys. Perhaps he died a natural death. There was no evidence to show Mrs. Grondin ever had arsenic in her hands except for her gardening. [18]
The defence lawyer concluded with his strongest argument. He caught the Crown’s medical expert in what he referred to as a monumental “error of analysis.” Holding up the container seized from Grondin’s home, he reminded jurors that the expert said it contained arsenic. But that was not true. It was not a mixture of paris green and carbonate of lime, as the Crown’s witness alleged. The supposed poison was nothing more than ordinary wood ashes. “If the doctor made a simple mistake like that, maybe he was wrong when he said there was arsenic in Brochu’s body.” [19] The lawyer may have been right, but the jury was not buying his argument. After sitting for a month and hearing testimony from more than one hundred witnesses, it took jurors one hour and fifteen minutes to find Cloutier guilty of murder. Perhaps they came to their decision so quickly because it was divinely inspired. When the jury was told it was to begin its deliberations, the foreman asked the judge for a “special favour.” Could they walk a few steps down the street to St. Joseph’s old Roman Catholic Church and pray for a bit. That is what they did. After spending twenty minutes on their knees, the jurors rose and returned to the courthouse. Ninety minutes later Cloutier was sentenced to hang. [20]
The trial of his wife ended on October 8, 1938, and Grondin’s got underway before the same judge a month later. His hearing lasted almost as long as that of his co-accused, and much of the evidence was the same. One thing that became clear at the very beginning of the trial was that from the day he became Brochu’s hired man, Grondin was seldom apart from his lover. The murder victim’s fourteen-year-old niece and her brother lived with the Brochus the summer her uncle died. She testified that every day just after lunch Grondin showed up, and as soon as he did the siblings were banished to the second floor of the tiny home. “She [Cloutier] told us she would beat us if we did not leave.” Once they got to the second floor, she said, her aunt lowered a trapdoor at the top of the staircase. “We only came down again after Grondin had left.” [21]
Although the trial continued for another three weeks, the result for Grondin was the same as it had been for his wife: guilty. His date with the hangman was set for the end of April 1939, by which time his wife should have been dead — except that was not the way things turned out. When Cloutier received permission to appeal her verdict, her death sentence was postponed. After the Quebec Court of Appeal denied her application for a new trial, her sentence was postponed a second time so that she could appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. That court reserved judgment after hearing arguments, and by the time the various appeals of Grondin and Cloutier were dealt with, the couple spent almost a year and a half on death row.
In early February one last wrinkle had to be ironed out before they could be executed. According to law, condemned persons are to be hanged in the
The defence lawyer concluded with his strongest argument. He caught the Crown’s medical expert in what he referred to as a monumental “error of analysis.” Holding up the container seized from Grondin’s home, he reminded jurors that the expert said it contained arsenic. But that was not true. It was not a mixture of paris green and carbonate of lime, as the Crown’s witness alleged. The supposed poison was nothing more than ordinary wood ashes. “If the doctor made a simple mistake like that, maybe he was wrong when he said there was arsenic in Brochu’s body.” [19] The lawyer may have been right, but the jury was not buying his argument. After sitting for a month and hearing testimony from more than one hundred witnesses, it took jurors one hour and fifteen minutes to find Cloutier guilty of murder. Perhaps they came to their decision so quickly because it was divinely inspired. When the jury was told it was to begin its deliberations, the foreman asked the judge for a “special favour.” Could they walk a few steps down the street to St. Joseph’s old Roman Catholic Church and pray for a bit. That is what they did. After spending twenty minutes on their knees, the jurors rose and returned to the courthouse. Ninety minutes later Cloutier was sentenced to hang. [20]
The trial of his wife ended on October 8, 1938, and Grondin’s got underway before the same judge a month later. His hearing lasted almost as long as that of his co-accused, and much of the evidence was the same. One thing that became clear at the very beginning of the trial was that from the day he became Brochu’s hired man, Grondin was seldom apart from his lover. The murder victim’s fourteen-year-old niece and her brother lived with the Brochus the summer her uncle died. She testified that every day just after lunch Grondin showed up, and as soon as he did the siblings were banished to the second floor of the tiny home. “She [Cloutier] told us she would beat us if we did not leave.” Once they got to the second floor, she said, her aunt lowered a trapdoor at the top of the staircase. “We only came down again after Grondin had left.” [21]
Although the trial continued for another three weeks, the result for Grondin was the same as it had been for his wife: guilty. His date with the hangman was set for the end of April 1939, by which time his wife should have been dead — except that was not the way things turned out. When Cloutier received permission to appeal her verdict, her death sentence was postponed. After the Quebec Court of Appeal denied her application for a new trial, her sentence was postponed a second time so that she could appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. That court reserved judgment after hearing arguments, and by the time the various appeals of Grondin and Cloutier were dealt with, the couple spent almost a year and a half on death row.
In early February one last wrinkle had to be ironed out before they could be executed. According to law, condemned persons are to be hanged in the
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