-73.
No. 4 of 1977
QUEEN
VS
SYLVESTER GASTON
JUDGE'S SUMMING UP TO JURY
Mr
•
Foreman, Members of the Jury, yours is a great
responsibility today, and it is not to be entered into
lightly. You have been selected to sit in judgment on
this accused person. He is charged with having committed
murder, that the said Sylvester Gaston on Wednesday, 19th
January, 1977 at East End in this island of Tortola
murdered Evelyn Rabsatt.
You have got to decide the facts
in this case. You have to say whether that accused person
is guilty or innocent, and you have taken an oath to make
a true deliverance between our Sovereign Lady the Queen
and the prisoner at the bar. Members of the public who
are sitting, watching, and listening have taken no oath,
so the responsibility is yours. You have been put in
charge of the accused. You are told to hearken to the
evidence. You are to hearken to the evidence such as
you heard in this court, such as you saw and such
inferences as you may care to draw from the evidence,
but you are not to hearken to the story you heard out-
side. You are not to hearken to the opinions of your
friends or your relatives. You are to pay no heed to
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the fact that Tortola is watching you to see what
judgment you are going to make, and that perhaps you
think, that Tortolians will be annoyed with you to
decide one way or the other. Your duty is to hearken
to the evidence, and make a true deliverance in keeping
with the oath.
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