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Mt Ng Choy said he was quite prepared to leave the charges in connection with the I death of the cook and the Chinese boy to the jury, reminding them that every word they had heard from the witnesses was the evidence of accomplices. He again quoted from Russell on Crimes as to the caution to ibe observed in receiving the evidence of accomplices, and presumptive and circum- stantial evidence, vol. iii. p. 812. He re. minded them that by the law of England the prisoners' mouths were shut, Had that not been so, the jury might have heard A very different story to that that bad been told them; and while he would not say that it was so, it might have been that his clients would have been in the witness-box to give a more correct and connected version of what occurred, and those who had given evidence against them to-day would have been in the dook charged with the crimes now laid on the shoulders of his clients, In conclusion he remarked that he believed be had not been able to do his duty to his clients as he could have wished; but he had done all he could according to his poor ability and skill. He reminded them that the lives of the prisoners were now in their hands. They should be satisfied by slear legal evidence that they were guilty before they took the responsibility of con victing them. They should be satisfied. with nothing short of the most connected, clear, legal proof that they were guilty. : It was not sufficient that they should have no moral doubt as to the guilt of the prisoners; they were not here to-day to consider the question from that{ point of view. There might be, even a decided probability of these men being the murderers, but that was not sufficient, for a man was not to be found guilty and banged on a mere suspicion. In a case of life and death the whole case had to be ! legally formally and completely made out before a conviction could be entered. It was not for him or them to prove their innocence, but for the prosecution to put their guilt beyond doubt. He left it for the jury to say whether this had been done if not, if there was any doubt, the prisoners were entitled to the benefit of it. The Chief Justice in summing up said the case bad lost nothing, neither the prosecu tion nor the defense had been disadvantaged by the Court sitting until that late hour, He was afraid he would not be able him. self, at that late hour, to do that justics to the case which he could have wished, but he would do his best, and the jtry would have the advantage that they brought to the final consideration of the case tonight' a complete and fresh recollection of the i evidence, the arguments, and the points of the case, which they would probably not have carried oref till to-morrow, bad it' been decided to a jogen late at night. I Tue case was as fully before them as if they bad devoted two or three ordinary days to ít, Mr Ng Choy had very judiciously confined himself to the general principles which govern a prosecution of this nature, and had very fairly laid before the jury that view of those principles most in accord- iance with the interests of his clients. Mz Ng Choy was quite correct in telling them that the Court would direct them in accor- dance with the rules laid down in the passage he had read them from a great authority on Evidence. But he had to warn them not to attach a meaning to that passage which it could not, unless through overnight, be taken to convey and which the writer certainly never intended It to convey. Mr Ng Choy was quite right in telling them that it was not his duty to prove his clients' inuocence but the duty of the pro- secution to prove them guilty. This was most clearly the law, that the prosecutor had to prove one, two or three of these
ac-
prisoners clearly guilty of the orimes laid { against them, or else the prisoners would be entitled to a verdict of not guilty. The ¡Attorney General had acted most reason- ably and wisely in saying he would not preas the charge connected with the mur- der of the cook, the evidence not having come out as he had expected and had been instructed, But still there were six very serious charges against the cused, and to these he would direct their attention one by one. All of them deserved their most serious considera. tion. The first question was did the pri - sopers or one or other of them murder the Captain. The jurisdiction, he might advise them at once, was established. He had not the slightest doubt on that point. With regard to Mr Ng Choy's argument for the cautious reception as credible evidence of the testimony of those men who were on board the ship when the murders took place, he must tell them that the law was this ;- ; when an accomplice comes forward with an : account of any crime which is unsupported or uncorroborated, the jury cannot convict on that evidence; but if there are two accom-. plices, and they by their evidence support each other, the trustworthiness of their evid- ence incresses by geometrical progression, and their testimony becomes not only recsi- vable but reliable; and when you have 'three xocomplices, between whom you have no reason to believe there is any conspiracy, :the credibility and value of the evidence goes on increasing in geometrical_progres- sion, As to Peter Augustin, his Lordship did not see that he could in any way bo re- garded as an accomplice. He had never been charged with any participation in these crimes. He was not found with the prisoners, but escaped and hid himself because they, suspecting him as likely to get them into trouble, wanted to kill him. From the very first Peter had said what be said "now; the jury saw the straightforward way in which he gave his evidence. Although he was personally present when the mur ders or some of them were committed, that I would not in the slightest way render him His criminally liable for what was done. unwilling presence was nothing; his mind as well as his body must be with the mur- derers before he made himself an accom- plice. He must either have taken part in or assented to the murders; and there was One reasona no evidence he did either. why he had not gone with them and why they wanted to kill him, and why they were here to-day, perhaps, was that the man was of a different race, he was "an African, born in Mauritius," and of a different tone of thought. His Honor proceeded to quote from Baron Alderstone that when murder or any other crime was proved circumstan- tially, not only must the orcumstances be consistent with the theory that the pri Boners committed the offence alleged, but the whole circumstances must be inconsistent with any other rational conclu- sion than that the prisoners at the bar committed the crime, before the jury are entitled to find them guilty. If the cir cumstances were at all reconcileable with the innocence of the prisoners they were entitled to the benefit of the doubt, large portion of the evidence in this case was formal; he would pass that over; it proved that the Kate Waters was flying under the British flag, and those men, therefore, were amenable to this Court and to the law of England. The evidence they bad chiefly to deal with was that of the men who were with them on the ship. The learned Counsel had not gone into the evidence. The prisoner at the bar would lose nothing by his reticence. Often in cases of this kind nothing could be more prudent than a substitution of the art of silence for the art of oratory. One of the › witnesses in his evidence had stated that (John said: "If I had not killed the cap.
A
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