The Article and The End Summary

The article begins by describing a trip to the point by the defense attorney in Mary's second trial, Sam Cotton. Cotton claims that Mary killed Harrold out of self defense following two years of escalating violence within their marriage. Cotton compares Mary to Hester Prynne, the heroine of the novel The Scarlett Letter, with the exception that rather than meaning adulteress, her A stands for abuse. However, the author of the article finds it hard to find sympathy for Maureen English, who refuses to respond to any name other than Mary Amesbury. The author, Helen Scofield, describes her only meeting with Mary Amesbury and the description of her childhood that Mary supplied to Ms. Scofield in a series of letters describing the days before her crime. Ms. Scofield also refers to these letters when she...