In fact, then, the evidence would be laid bare to the people of Southern Oregon, and they would know just why one man can be convicted of murder in the first degree, and "hung by the neck until he is dead," on strong circumstantial evidence; and why another crime, of the same foul magnitude, is committed, and the courts fail to find the author when the circumstantial evidence that made the first man stretch hemp was far less convicting in its circumstantialness than was the case that the blind Goddess of Justice could not find guilty; […]
Source: wiktionary