Reasonable Doubt

In a quiet, almost deserted Bridgeport (Conn.) courtroom last week, State's Attorney Lorin W. Willis asked that the case be dismissed. He droned that he had "... a reasonable doubt or more" that Imogene Stevens was guilty of manslaughter. Tiger-eyed Imogene, killer of 19-year-old Navy Seaman Albert Kovacs while she was "in an aura of sex recrimination, beer and window-smashing" (the coroner's report), was free.

Tabloid readers sighed with disappointment : they had been hoping to hear, in all its details and in several different versions, the story of what happened that June night in sedate New Canaan. Others, notably the family of Seaman Kovacs, had a more serious complaint. Imogene had said she fired in self-defense when Kovacs started to beat her. Kovacs' brother, who was sitting with him in a neighbor's house when Mrs. Stevens stormed in and told them to clear out, stuck to his story that she had fired without warning (TIME, July 9). Wasn't her guilt a question for a jury to decide? Was this the way to protect the peace and dignity of the state?

State's Attorney Willis made no answer, but many a lawyer made one for him. Imogene was pretty, her husband a handsome and well-to-do New Canaanite and a paratrooper major with a good war record. He had come home from Europe to stand by her. It would be a tough conviction to get from any jury.

In Columbus, Ga., where Major George Stevens III is now on duty, fiery Imogene demurely commented: "I am very happy."

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