100 years ago in Spokane: Attorney who won acquittal for man accused of murder says client should have been charged with manslaughter

Lester Edge, Maurice Codd’s attorney in his murder trial, stunned nearly everyone when he admitted that his client should have been found guilty of manslaughter, and “was entitled to some punishment.”

“I would have advised Codd to plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter and we tried to have the charge reduced,” said Edge, under oath as one of the defendants in the subornation of perjury trial. “The prosecuting attorney said he was guilty of murder in the first degree and he demanded his life.”

Edge was still brooding over the prosecutor’s inflexibility, and added, “That is why I am here today and why these other defendants are here.”

Edge said the Codd murder case was relatively simple, at its root.

“An intoxicated civilian (Codd) became involved with a partially intoxicated soldier (Frank Brinton), probably over a woman,” Edge said. “They were near the railing. In wrestling, or scuffling there, one of them went over the railing. He died as a result. There was no premeditation. Codd didn’t know Brinton and had nothing against him. I am not upholding Codd’s action, but they set out to convict him of a crime of which he was not guilty. Mr. Meyer (the prosecutor) lost his case. He had to find some way to shelve the blame.”

He said the Burns Detective Agency, which provided assistance to the prosecution, also “had to have some blood, some scalp, some trophy of the chase, some pound of flesh.”

Several times, Edge stopped to “wipe tears from his eyes.” He said he had endured “days of torture followed by nights of torture” for the last 45 days.

Edge also rejected the basic premise of the subornation of perjury charges: that Maurice Codd’s family used its wealth to get him acquitted.

“There has been a lot of talk about Codd money,” he said. “And yet the only money shown to have been paid were these few dollars that Mrs. Sant got.”