PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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TTC.O.88
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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ball striking a building in one of the streets of Nassau, and the question for the jury was whether he had discharged it at the prosecutor (a labouring man) with either of the intents charged in the information, The case was tried, however, on both occasions by a special jury, and resulted ultimately in a verdict of acquittal.
Trinity Term, 1874.
The term commenced on the 21st of July, when I exhibited eleven informations, namely:-
One for concealment of birth,
Four for unlawfully wounding,
One for housebreaking and larceny,
One for shopbreaking and larceny,
One for larceny as a bailee,
One for simple larceny, and
Two for obtaining goods by false pretences.
Of these all were convicted or pleaded guilty, with the exception of the two charges for obtaining goods by false pretences, in which one of the accused was acquitted, and the other found to be insane on arraignment. None of the cases contained any feature calling for special notice.
Michaelmas Term, commencing October 20, 1874.
The number of criminal cases returned by the Magistrate to the Attorney-General's office for prosecution during this Term numbered fourteen in all. In two of these, how- ever, (charges of arson) the evidence was so wholly insufficient that the accused was (the charges being against one and the same person) discharged by Proclamation without an information having been exhibited.
The informations exhibited and filed were as follows:-
One for arson,
One for carnally abusing a girl between ten and twelve years,
One for indecent assault,
Three for unlawfully wounding,
Two for assaults occasioning actual bodily harm,
One with feloniously breaking into a warehouse with intent to commit felony,
Two for shopbreaking and larceny, and
One for stealing in a dwelling-house to the value of five pounds and upwards.
In addition to which the man who had been found insane on arraignment the previous Term having been reported by the Medical Officer of the Asylum to have recovered, was put on his trial.
The result of the several cases was as follows:-
The arson case, the charge of carnally abusing a girl between the age of ten and twelve, and two of the unlawfully wounding cases, ended in acquittals on their merits.
In the indecent assault case, after the jury had been impannelled the prosecutrix did not appear, whereupon a verdict of not guilty was returned.
In one of the cases of assault occasioning actual bodily harm the prosecutor and his witnesses, all of whom resided in an Out-island, also failed to appear, when a nolle prosequi was entered on the information. In the other case of assault occasioning actual bodily harm a conviction took place, after a trial lasting two days; and in all the other cases, including the one in which the accused had originally been found insane on arraignment, the parties pleaded guilty.
A summary of the foregoing cases and their results is as follows :--
Thirty-four cases in all; in which there were nineteen judgments for the Crown, eleven acquittals, and four fell through for want of prosecution.
Of the thirty-four cases, twenty related to offences committed or alleged to have been committed in the Island of New Providence, and fourteen to offences committed on the Out-islands.
The number of cases sent for trial by the Magistrates show an increase of two over those sent in 1873, but the judgments for the Crown in both years were exactly the same in number.
Signed} G. C. ANDERSON, Attorney-General. Attorney-General's Office, January 4, 1875.
(No. 125. Bahamas.) Sir,
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No. 36.
The Earl of Carnarvon to Governor Robinson.
Downing Street, August 16, 1875, I HAVE received your despatch No. 154 of the 30th of June, forwarding the Annual Returns relating to prison discipline and crime in the Bahamas for 1874.
The gaol at Nassau is a credit to the Colony, and the manner in which prison discipline is carried out there is, I am glad to observe, resulting in a diminution of the average prison population.
The report of the Attorney-General, Sir George Anderson, is full and interesting. The Bahamas I observe is one of the Colonies which has abandoned the principle of unanimity in jury verdicts; and after twenty-six years' experience of the change Sir George Anderson pronounces it to have been beneficial, In some quarters it was apprehended that the abandonment of unanimity would lead to hasty verdicts; and the principle was qualified by requiring larger majorities in inverse ratio to the length of deliberation. But the experience of the Bahamas, and also of Hong Kong, where no such qualifications were introduced, proves that in those places the balance of convenience has been found to be against them.
• No. 35.
I have, &c. (Signed) CARNARVON.