Marie LaFarge

Marie-Fortunée LaFarge, née Capelle (January 15, 1816 - November 7, 1852) was a Frenchwoman who was convicted of murdering her husband by arsenic poisoning in 1840. Her case became notable because it was one of the first trials to be followed by the public through daily newspaper reports as well as the first person convicted largely on direct forensic toxicological evidence. However, questions about her guilt had divided French society to the extent that it is often compared to the better-known Dreyfus affair.

Conviction and Controversy

In the end, despite the passionate pleadings of Charles Lachaud, Marie, no longer as composed as she was previously throughout the trial, heard herself sentenced by the président to life imprisonment with hard labor and brought to Montpellier to serve out her sentence. King Louis-Philippe, however, commuted her sentence to life without hard labor.

Related Topics:
Montpellier - King Louis-Philippe

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By then l'affaire LaFarge had polarized French society. George Sand wrote to her friend Eugène Delacroix criticizing the perceived railroading of the case (it was worth noting that Marie, in turn, was an admirer of Sand and was said to read her works "greedily"). Raspail, as if to make up for his failure to make a difference in the trial, wrote and published incendiary leaflets against Orfila while demanding for Marie's release. In effect, many have felt that Marie was a victim of injustice, convicted by scientific evidence of uncertain validity.

Related Topics:
George Sand - Eugène Delacroix

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As if to defend himself from these criticisms, in the following months after the trial, Orfila had conducted well-attended public lectures, often in the presence of members of the Academy of Medicine of Paris, to explain his views on the Marsh test. Soon public awareness of the test was such that it was duplicated in salons and even in some plays recreating the LaFarge case.

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