K. v. Yiu Fai.
Summing-Up.
15
26th August, 1940.
Gentlemen,
I am not going to remind you of how very responsible a task is yours.
I am perfectly certain that you all realize to the full that this man's life and death are now in your hands.
The charge that we are investigating is whether or not the Prosecution has satisfied you beyond reasonable doubt that the accused man killed Wong Ka Yan in such circumstances as to amount to murder. That is to say that he deliberately took his life without any matter of palliation or excuse, but to that side I shall have to come again presently.
It has been a short case; we are now only half way through the afternoon of the first day of the trial, and from one point of view I think we are all bound to think it has been an unsatisfactory case because I have never in my experience of the Hong Kong Police Force seen a case so badly prepared and presented.
Mr. She has said to you, and has said quite rightly to you, that there is a strange and he would ask you to go further and say a significant lack of eye-witnesses. That is as it may be: they may have all been heavy sleepers, they may even have been, as Chinese sometimes are, completely reluctant to admit that they saw anything about a matter that was not their business. But there are other things that would have thrown a great deal of light on the case, evidence as to which was clearly available to the police, and yet nothing has been heard about it here. We don't know for instance whether that blanket was the blanket which was on the deceased man's bed. If it were and had been used by him that night and been taken from his bed next morning, I don't think...
K. v. Yiu Fai.
Summing-Up.
15
26th August, 1940.
Gentlemen,
I am not going to remind you of how very responsible a
task is yours.
I am perfectly certain that you all realize
to the full that this man's life and death are now in your
hands.
The charge that we are investigating is whether or not
the Prosecution has satisfied you beyond reasonable doubt that
the accused man killed Wong Ka Yan in such circumstances as to
amount to murder. That is to say that he deliberately took
his life without any matter of palliation or excuse, but to that side I shall have to come again presently.
-
It has been a short case; we are now only half way through
the afternoon of the first day of the trial, and from one
point of view I think we are all bound to think it has been an
unsatisfactory case because I have never in my experience of
the Hong Kong Police Force seen a case so badly prepared and
presented.
Mr. She has said to you, and has said quite rightly to
you, that there is a strange and he would ask you to go
further and say a significant lack of eye-witnesses. That is
as it may be: they may have all been heavy sleepers, they
may even have been, as Chinese sometimes are, completely
reluctant to admit that they saw anything about a matter that
was not their business. But there are other things that would
have thrown a great deal of light on the case, evidence as
to which was clearly available to the police, and yet nothing
has been heard about it here. We don't know for instance
whether that blanket was the blanket which was on the
deceased man's bad. If it were and had been used by him that
night and been taken from his bed next morning, I don't think
No comments yet.
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