TNAG-0604-FCO40-752-Capital-punishment-in-Dependent-Territories-1977 — Page 117

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So you have to approach this matter very

dispassionately.

You are not to be affected by con-

siderations of the accused's nationality. You are not

to be affected by the fact that the deceased was a

Tortolian and the accused is a St. Lucian. You are not

to be persuaded by the fact that the deceased may be a

friend of yours, or a friend of a friend, or a friend

of the family. Such is your oath here, that you would

be well advised to make sure that when you leave this

court you feel that your conscience is clear.

G

However, the manner in which Evelyn Rabsatt died

may be somewhat unusual in Tortola. May be, it is a

very heinous crime the circumstances may be very bad

as far as you have seen and heard the evidence, but this

is not to tell you that you must therefore say "well

this lady has met her death this way, somebody has got

to pay for it". You are not there to make any what we

call "tit for tat" You must listen to the evidence,

weigh it and then decide. So you have got to study

all the evidence. You heard the Crown's witnesses and

you have heard the accused and his witness. You have

got to weigh both sides carefully. As judges of the

fact, as I just indicated you will be expected to draw

inferences from the facts proven before you, not always

in a case every fact can be adduced as it were like an

eye witness account, so you will have to draw inferences,

but you are not to make conjecture, you are not to go

guessing, you must draw proper inferences as reasonable

people of the world.

UT

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