1142.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
Co.
• 885
12 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
SIR,
No. 189.
(JAMAICA.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Copy Letter,
We were honoured with your commands, signified in Mr. Bramston's letter of
Temple, 24th January 1879. the 13th instant, stating that he was directed by you to transmit to us the enclosed copy of a Despatch from the Governor of Jamaica, dated the 9th of December last, with the several documents noted in the margin, which accompanied that Despatch.
That we would perceive from those papers that the Governor of Jamaica had, at the request of the Chief Justice, applied for the advice of Her Majesty's Government Tomber 1578. on certain legal questions, stated by the Chief Justice in his letter of the 7th of me 20th No- December 1878, arising in the case of Richard Baker, alias Bill Baker, and four other The Chief J persons, who had been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for the murder of a man unknown.
Chief Justice of Jamalos to Gor.. 7 December 1978.
same, 19th No-
Report, same
V+mber 1879.
tice's Notes of Richard Baker aul others. Copy Letter of Chief Justice,
Report, as to
the trial of
t
Mr. Bramston was further pleased to state that you desired him to request that we would favour you with our early opinion upon the questions raised by the Chief 10 November Justice of Jamaica, viz. :--
1878. Memorandum by the A. G. of Jamaica, oth
1. Whether the Chief Justice ought to have left the case to the jury as to all or December 1979,
any and which of the prisoners who were convicted in the absence of any evidence either that any person had been missed or that a body had been
found.
2. Whether the jury, upon the evidence submitted to them, and in the unexplained absence of any such evidence as mentioned in question 1, ought to have convicted all or any and which of the prisoners who were convicted.
In obedience to your commands we have the honour to
Report
That we are unable to concur that there is any doubt about the legal validity of the conviction in consequence of the absence of due proof of the corpus delicti. There is abundant evidence, if it is believed, of the fact of murder having been committed; there is evidence of the disposition of the body, and though it might be subject to commentary before the jury that the place of disposition had not been sufficiently examined, or if examined did not corroborate the statement made with respect to the disposition of the body of the murdered man. two eye-witnesses to a murder committed, and the account given of the disposition The positive and direct testimony of of the body, renders it quite out of the question to suggest that the caution enforced by Lord Hale is applicable to such a case as that disclosed by the evidence produced at the trial of these prisoners.
With respect to the crodit to be attached to the evidence of the various witnesses. the Chief Justice and the jury must have been much better able to judge than we are, inasmuch as they heard the witnesses, and were able to form an opinion both of their intelligence and of their intention to tell the truth. proved at the trial to render the story of the two witnesses-one of 16 years of age We see nothing in the facts as and the other of 11-either incredible or improbable, and the statement made by those prisoners who made statements are very cogent confirmatory evidence as against the prisoners themselves of the substantial accuracy of the narrative given by the two witnesses in question. We are unable to see any reason for discrediting that part of the narrative which relates to the deliberate murder of the unknown sailor. If he had been so seriously injured as to render it possible that he might bring his assailants to punishment, there was an obvious motive in those persons inflicting those injuries to screen themselves from discovery, a motive quite strong enough to induce the persons guilty of violence to commit the further crime of murder. sure whether it is the desire of Sir Michael H. Beach that we should report our We are not quite opinion as to the course pursued at the trial, and we should express an opinion with some diffidence, inasmuch as those charged with the conduct of it may have had other considerations before their minds than those which can now be brought before us; but we are of opinion that it was unfortunate that no evidence was given before the
12916.-183. 25.-12/84.
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