PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TPLEICO. 882
3
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
66
The counsel for the defence called no witnesses, but addressed the jury on behalf of the prisoners. After the judge had summed up, the jury brought in an unanimous
verdict as follows:-
No. 1, guilty.
No. 2, guilty. No. 3, not guilty.
Sentence of death was then pronounced upon Nos. 1 and 2 in the usual manner.
Enclosure 3.
CHIEF JUSTICE, Straits Settlements, to His Excellency the GOVERNOR, Straits
Settlements.
June 17, 1876.
SIR.
I HAVE the honour to forward herewith a copy of the notes taken by me upon the trial of Tan Seang, Lim Chew, Lee Hoo Oi, Koh Kim, Koh Pendeh, Koh Puteh, Koh Tong, Tey Heng, Yok Keng, and Tan Eng, for murder.
The prisoners were all committed for trial at the last March assizes in Malacca, but on the application of the Crown Solicitor, authorised by the Attorney General, I made an order for the removal of the trial to Singapore, and the prisoners were accordingly tried before a special jury at Singapore, convicted and sentenced to death.
In consequence of some legal points having been raised by the prisoners' counsel on their behalf, which points were reserved by me for the consideration of the Full Court of Appeal, I respited the carrying out of the sentence until after those points had been considered and decided by the Court of Appeal. The points of law reserved were argued before the Full Court of Appeal, on the 15th instant, by Mr. Woods, Counsel for all the prisoners, and the Attorney General on behalf of the Crown, and thereupon the Full Court of Appeal unanimously held that the objection raised against the judgment were invalid and affirmed the judgment of the Court to be law.
Your Excellency will perceive from the notes that રી most barbarous series of murders was undoubtedly committed, and that yet the jury, whilst finding all the prisoners guilty of these murders (for the commission of one involved the commission of all), recommended the whole of the prisoners to mercy on the ground of the
disturbed state of the district at the tine.
The alleged ground on which the recommendation to mercy is based, seems to me to be a most inadequate one, indeed, I should almost consider it as a reason for not extending mercy to the convicted men.
My experience of juries in these Settlements, however, leads me to the belief that the verdict and the recommendation to mercy were the result of a compromise on the part of the jury. They thought that there was sufficient evidence to convict these men, but they did not consider that all doubt upon the subject had been excluded, and they hoped by the recommendation to mercy that the lives of these men might be spared so as not to place them beyond all possibility of a mistake being rectified.
Feeling this, and also not entertaining that confidence in the verdict of the jury which I should wish to entertain before recommending the execution of all or any of the condemned men, I arrive, but by a different process of reasoning, to the same result at which the jury seem to me to have arrived, and I think that, under all the circumstances, this is a case in which it would be safer to commute the sentence passed upon them to one of penal servitude for life.
His Excellency
Sir W. F. D. Jervois, C.B,, K.C.M.G.
I have, &c.
(Signed) THOMAS SIDGREAVES.
Thursday, the 11th day of May 1876.
The Queen
0.
Tan Seang, Lim Chew, Lee Hoo Oi, Koh Kim, Koh Pendeh, Koh Puteh, Koh Tong, Tey Heng, Yok Keng, Tan Eng
Charge.
Ist. Gang robbery and murder.
2nd. Murder.
The Crown Solicitor for the Crown, Messrs. Woods and H. Vaughan for the prisoners. Pondoh Jacoon :—I reside at Naning. I had a husband named Ah Boon. He is dead. We lived together at the tin mines near Naning. One night I was in the
67
We
It was
house, about five months ago. Four coolies were in the house and the cook. had gone to bed. The head coolie called me. I heard the firing of guns. After the first crowing of the cock, they broke open the door, and came in. More than 20 persons came outside.
More than three came in. They had long knives. They seized things. I saw them seize the coolies, the cook, Ang Yim, Ah Chin, Ah Tek, Tucan Arang, my husband Ah Boon. They beat them and tied their hands behind their backs. then daylight. They tied them to a post outside. I could see the faces of those who entered. I identify No. 9. I don't know his name. I had known No. 9 long. I lived at Sempang two months, and he used to come to my house every day; that was seven months ago. The charcoal burner ran away, and they stabbed him. They took my husband and the five others away. They took those men, and I followed in. My husband was one of them. They drove me back. They said,
Don't you go, if I went to call the Punghulu and Puh Lah. They called
you go, you'll die." the gentleman, and they took me into a jungle, and showed me five corpses. My husband's corpse was amongst them. They were decomposed. I walked from the mine to the jungle. It took me more than two hours. They buried my husband's body. Ah Boon had been married to me more than three years.
No. I.)
Cross-examined.--(Deposition before magistrate read.) (She then pointed out What I have stated to-day is true, not false what I said before the magistrate. It was dark when they came in. Their faces were blackened. I recognized No. 9 by his voice. He sells cloth. He lived far from my house.
I don't owe him money. Re-examined. I know this basket (produced). It is one for keeping fowls. night they took it away. It was to Mr. Hayward complained.
have had that basket a long time. It is a very common kind of basket. I recognize it as belonging to the house. When the men left the house, it was a little light, sufficiently for me to see their faces.
That
AUGUSTINE MAXIMILIAN CORNELIUS:-I went to Naning to measure the place in question. This is a survey and plan from Miner's residence to Naning Path.
PUNGHULU YUSOF.-At Naning five months ago. Last witness resides there. She made a complaint next day to me, that one night persons came and made a disturbance in her house. When the cock crew some persons came and fired into the house. One man was dead.
She said her husband got up and went out of a small room. They burst in, and came in. They scized five men in the house. One ran out. They took away the five men. went to the police station at Pulo Sabang.
I went in search of these persons, and found five corpses in the jungle. Ah Boon's body was amongst them. I could identify him. Body was buried. I know Nos. 1, 2,
3, 8, 9, and 10. I arrested the first three, and the Punghulu the last three.
Cross-examined.-Nos. 1, 2, 3, 9. and 10 live near me. No. I used to have a shop,
2 and 3 the same, 9 is a sinkey, 10 keeps a plantation. I call first cock-crow more or less 3 in the morning.
MY AH LEW-I have a mine at Naning. I knew Ah Boon. He had a mine there. About five months ago I had gone to bed, and was awoke by the report of fire-arms Dear Ah Boon's house. This was about 4 or 5 A.M. I went and hid myself in the jungle. Past 7 o'clock when I came out. I saw a man as I was returning, wounded in the hands, feet, and thighs, and he asked me to carry him to a house. He was Lee Ah Yew.
HOOSAIN: Paddy planter, at Naning, five months ago, when the sun had just risen, a number of Chinese passed my house. They met ine. We were walking on same balloh. Their faces were covered with charcoal. Some of them had sticks, knives, and fire-arms in their hands. Only one had not his face blacked. They brought five men with their hands tied behind them, going towards Camois; those five had not their faces blackened. These men lived at the tin mines. I recognized their faces, but did not know their names. Soine of the men with their faces blackened I could recognize. (Points out Nos. 1, 2, 3, 8, and 10.) No. 1 was holding the tied men. One was tied by himself, walked in front, and four tied together behind.
No. 1 held the man walking first. Had a knife in the other band.
No. 2 was holding the four tied Chinese; 2, 3, 8, 10, came holding the other four. I could see that each of them carried a knife. Known No. about four years more or
less.
He keeps a vegetable garden. Formerly had a shop. No. 2, he opened a general shop near No. 1. I knew him two or three years; frequently saw him.
No. 8 for two years or a little more. He keeps a shop and hawks things about. No. 10's shop is there. Known him more or less two years. I asked them where they were taking these five men; they said, “You don't speak much." Two or three
[ 2