 Not long after the Goode case came the sensational trial of Professor John White Webster in the murder of George <unk> , a crime that took place at the Harvard Medical School in November 1849 . The trial received nationwide coverage , and the prosecution case was based on evidence that was either circumstantial ( complicated by the fact that a complete corpse was not found ) , or founded on new types of evidence ( forensic dentistry was used for the first time in this trial ) . Furthermore , Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice <unk> Shaw was widely criticized for bias in the instructions he gave to the jury . Briggs was petitioned to commute Webster 's sentence by death penalty opponents , and even threatened with physical harm if he did not . He refused however , stating that the evidence in the case was clear ( especially after Webster gave a confession ) , and that there was no reason to doubt that the court had acted with due and proper <unk> . 
