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Merely to hand the depositions to Counsel, and for him to defend a prisoner at a fixed fee with them only
All grounds of defence require to be ferreted out, as his instructions, is a mere delusion.
All this is painfully impressed on my They are often unknown or unthought of even by the accused. memory by the fact that four absolutely innocent men were once convicted of murder through conspiracy to obtain an advertised reward. They would have been executed, but that an accident postponed the day of execution. Their innocence was afterwards absolutely proved, and they wen discharged, but after weeks of agony, and the conspirators were convicted. On looking into that case, I came to the conclusion, with the light I then had, that if a witness, not called for the Crown, had been called for the prisoners, the conspiracy would have become patent at once; but Counsel, not having had time or opportunity to ascertain the facts, the witness was, probably in the exercise of a wise discretion under the special circumstances, not called,
"A defence, not to be a delusion, must be thoroughly got up."
"I have the honour to be,
"Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
JOHN SMALE,
Chief Justice
2. In addition to recording his opinion that a trial for murder where Counsel and Solicitor ars not both assigned for the prisoner is a delusion, His Honour conveyed to me subsequently on twe occasions his conviction that in this Colony especially, no exception whatever from this rule should be allowed, inasmuch as the majority of those that may be tried on a capital charge would probably be individuals unacquainted with the practice and procedure of our Courts and of whose language, neither the Judge nor the Jury had any knowledge."
3. The Chief Justice's opinion, in which I entirely concurred, was not, however, acted upon the recent case of CHEUNG ASHIX, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
4. Inform the Acting Chief Justice and the Attorney General, that in all future cases wherea man is tried on a capital charge, I think SIR JOHN SMALE's opinion and practice should be adhered w.
To the Honourable
ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.
J. POPE HENNESSY. 2nd July, 1878.
The Daily
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Press.
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HONGKONG, JUNE 20TH, 1878.
SUPREME COURT.
June 19th.
CRIMINAL SESSIONS.
BEFORE THE ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE HON. F. SNOWDEN.
THE SHEK O MURDER.
Ching Ashin was charged with murdering a woman named Chun Ngow Mui, at Shek O, on the 29th May; also on a second count with man- slaughter. He was also charged on a third count with wounding with intent to murder a woman named Chun A mui, and on two other counts with wounding with intent to do grievous bodily barm and with maliciously wounding; and on three other comuts with wounding a child named Lee Amuk with intent to warder, wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and with simple wounding.
The Attorney-General, instructed by the Crown Solicitor, prosecuted, and Mr. Hayllar, Q.C., appeared for the defence. The jurors were ! Messrs. J. G. Smith, J. Scior, J. F. Hartmanu, | H. Crawford, W. H. Percival, H. Hyndman, and
J. Inglis.
In opening the case the Attorney-General said the woman Chun Amui had lived for a long time at Shek O, and the prisoner had also lived there. Chan Amni's husband was a fisherman, ! and diod in October, 1877. After the death of her husband she became on very intimate! torms, as he was instructed, with the prisoner, and the latter made her presents of cash at various times amounting in all, as the woman yaid, to about a dollar. Chuu Amui's sister, the woman who was dead. lived at Kowloon city. She came over to Shek O and persuaded Chun Amui to go to Kowloon with her. They started on the 29th May, and the deceased earried Chun Amia's child. When they had gone some little distance they saw the prisoner, and some conversation took place between them and the prisoner, the prisoner demanding the! return of the money he had given to Chun Amiu. He then made a chop at the head of the child with a chopper be carried with him, and on Chun Ngow Mui interfering he attacked her with the chopper, aud cut ber in various places. Chun Ammi tried to assist her sister, and he chopped her in several places, but she at last got hold of his wrist and wrested the chopper from him and throw it away. In the mean- time they had been calling ont, "Save life," and a clausman of the women named Chan Amo, 'who was working in a field at some distance, cams up and found the women holding the pri- Boner. He sail ho would take him to the police and they proceeded some little distance when the the woman who had since died said she could go no further and sat down. Chan Amo then left them to go for the police, leaving the prisoner with Chan Amui, who held him by the queu While he was gone Mr. d'Almeida came up and had some conversation with them the result of which was that he took the man prisoner and handed him over to the police, who had been in- formed of the ocurrencé by Chun Amo. The man was then brought to the police station and the women taken to hospital, where the deneasud died.
Chun Amui was he first witness called. She described the attack, but said the prisoner did not ask for the return of the money he had given her; he took hold of the deceased's band and tried to take her bangle off. The witness also denied having been on terms of intimacy with the prisoner; she said she was only on speaking terms with him, but he had given her some cash to buy things for the child. On being pressed in cross-examination, however, she admitted : having been intimate with the prisoner, as stated by her at the magistracy. On the discrepancy being pointed out to her she replied that too mach inust not be expected of a woman's mind in these matters. She was asked if there had. not been a quarrel between the prisoner and her- self the night before the occurrence in couse- quence of her leaving. She said the prisoner was very angry but they did not quarrel, and she did not owe the prisoner any monoy.
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Dr. von der Horek, Acting Superintendent of the Civil Hospital, described the wounds of the two women and the child. He said the deccased had five wounds upon her, and death resulted from a wound in the throat nearly sever- ing the windpipe and from extreme loss of blood, Had she received medical assistance immediately after the occurrence the probability was she might have recovered, but seven hours had elapsed before she was brought to hospital.
were
Chun Amo, the man who came to the assistance of the women, Mr. D'Almoida, assistant light- house keeper at Cape D'Aguilar, who arrested the prisoner, and Inspector Swanston were the other witnesses called for the prosecution. Their evi- dence was the same as that given at the inquest.
Mr. Hayllar, in addressing the jury for the de.. fence, said there was no doubt whatever that the I woman who had died was killed by the prisoner, 1 and he presumed it might be said there was no doubt that the main elements of the case detailed by the witnesses for the Crown ware substautially true. But the issue he wished to place before them was this, whether the circum- stances undor which this crime was committed would make itamount to the grave offenceof mur- der, or whether the jury could bring in a verdict on the lesser count of nauslaughter. He quoted a passage from Archibald's Criminal Pleading to show the distinction between the two crimes. and went on to say that the duty lay upon him of showing that there was considerable provocation. They would notice that the caso deponded solely on the evidence of the first wituoss. Her story received most amplo corroboration in many partienlars, namely, that the wounds were in- dictod with the obopper produced by the prisoner and in a certain place; in point of fact all the surrounding circumstances of the case true. Bat there were some elements in the case which the weman shrank to-day from detailing to them in full, and she had done so under cir- cumstances which would render them extremely chary of accepting her evidence on some most matoriul points which really covered the whole ground on which he proposed to lay the case be- fore them. The Attorney-General, in his very moderate opening of the case, bad pointed out to them that there had been some intimacy exist- ing between the prisoner and the first wit- ness. They recollected that when the witness ente into the box, to the surprise of every- one who had read the depositions, she flatly contradicted that part of the story. She denied that she had been on more than speaking terms with the prisoner, and she denied, although not so flatly, that there had been any money transac- tions between them, but she gradually admitted in rather a hesitating sort of way that the pri- souer had given money to her child. She also. as it seemed to him, showed a great deal of animus in the way in which she told the story of the prisoner seizing her sister's arm and waking a throat that he would take something from her by force. It that story wore true and the prisoner had gone there to rob there would be no more to be said. The crime would amount as clearly to murder as any offence pos. sibly could do. But these discrepancies in her story would lead them to avoid placing implicit confidence in the woman's truthfulness. He had elicited from her with some trouble that in order to save her reputation and the reputation of her village-for the Chinese place great value on the purity of their widows--she deliberately al- tered the story she had given before and sup- plied another motive for the crime. To do this she added all this about the bangle. There was nothing about all this in the depositions before the magistrate, and the point was so im portant that it could not have escape·l attention had it existed, especially before such an experi- enced magistrate as Mr. May. On the face of the depositions the motive did not in the slight- est degree appear to be robbery, but the motive according to her present story was robbery. What were they to say then of a woman's evi- dence, on which a man's life depended, which was subject to these fluctuations. Her answer was a very clever one, that they must not expect too much from the mind of a woman on these things. But, when the life of a man depended on it, they were entitled to a great deal more care and accuracy than could be found in this woman's story. The truth seated to be, as far as he could make out, that there had been a quarrel overnight. The witness's sister had dome to this village on the 28th May for some purpose, the witness said on a visit, but he could not help thinking there was rather more in the
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