CO129-216 - Governor Sir Bowen - 1884 [5-6] — Page 218

217

aut as

that for practical purposes,

regards the prisoner's fate, and the responsibility in connexion therewith,

the decision, though formally

a decision as to probable guilt, is really a decision involving the consequences of a verdict

quiety

ca.co.

may

oruot

The

of

guilty

in a capital

following noter

be useful in considering

the evidence:-

1. The defence aricing

upon the evidence fut foorward. by Bishop Raimondi tobe partly that the prisoners did not do the

would seeuw

acts

acts charged as murder, and partly that these acts,

evew

if committed, did not

mudes the

circumstances

amount to murder, but avde

in the nature of killing in self defence. '

2. Of the witnesses examined for the defence four (4) were wives of prisoners. Strictly speaking in as much as all the prisoner were included in one charge

these vived were not competent witnesses. But as the principle upon which wives are held incompetent to give evidence

for

the

with

their husbands or for persons charged in same indictment their husbands, is that okey stand in the same position.

with respect to the adivisibility

of