As always, you can find the Dobbs v. Jackson decision here.

Paragraph 3 of 8

Sentence 3 of 3

This paragraph closes with a sentence that contains another simple claim:

“For that crime and another ‘misdemeanor,’ Beare was sentenced to two days in the pillory and three years’ imprisonment.27”

That other “misdemeanor” of which Mrs. Beare was convicted was that she advised a man to kill his wife and offered to supply the man with poison to commit the murder. End note 27 merely indicates the same Gentleman’s Magazine piece:

“Id., at 932.”

Here is my transcription of the statement of the charge:

“Counsel for the King. Gentlemen of the Jury, you have heard the indictment read, and I must observe to you, that the Crime for which the Prisoner stands indicted, is an Offence of the highest Nature, next to Murder itself; it is the Instigation of a Man to kill his Wife, in the most secret Manner, in order to keep it from the Eyes of the World, and thereby to escape the Punishment due to such a Crime, by giving her Poison in Drink, of such a Nature as should not work suddenly but by degrees, and thereby to kill her without any Suspicion of Murder; and it is owing to the good Providence of God, that the Man did not give his Wife the Poison, for if he had, and she had died, the Prisoner would have been tryed for the Murder.”

I don’t know what the charges for these allegations would be in the United States in 2023—maybe conspiracy to commit murder or accessory to attempted murder or both? I don’t know—but it was this charge in addition to the misdemeanor abortion charge that earned Mrs. Beare her sentence, which I have transcribed here:

“His Lordship summed up the Evidence in a very moving Speech to the Jury, wherein he said, he never met with a Case so barbarous and unnatural. The Jury, after a short Consultation, brought the Prisoner in Guilty of both Indictments, and she received Sentence to stand on the Pillory, the Two next Market-Days, and to suffer close Imprisonment for Three Years.

There’s no indication here, and so no way to know, how much each charge contributed to the sentence, but it’s worth noting that the first charge is at least as serious as the second, so she wasn’t sentenced to the pillory and to prison just because of the misdemeanor abortion charge.

Bottom line, though, is that this claim is true:

• “For that crime and another ‘misdemeanor,’ Beare was sentenced to two days in the pillory and three years’ imprisonment.