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Supreme Court, has, with the advice of the Executive Council, been commuted to imprisonment,
imprisonment.
with hard labour, for life.
The prisoners formed
of burglars,
part of a
band
who attacked a house in the
village of Lettle HongKong,
on
the night of the 10th of October
last.
3.
The
identification and
condemnation of the prisoners,
on the evidence
depended solely of a boy of twelve . His evidence
was
was in no
way affected by the
cross-examination to which
the prisoners' Counsel subjected him; but,
for
some reason.
which the Council
failed
to
ascertain satisfactorily from
the Police, he was
noth
t produced.
as a witness until the 24th of
October, on which day the third hearing at the Magistracy -
took place.
4.
This delay
delay in producing
him excited a reasonable
suspicion
in the minds of the
majority