[
    {
        "id": 209487,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 144,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "122\n\nhe loved best\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\n'Yes, there is no doubt he did it, but at the time he did it he was insane',12\n\nThat Marshall Hall was baffled by Lock's behaviour is evident. He developed a subsidiary defence that his client had run amok (a line of defence that quickly fizzled out when Lock's son said, in cross-examination, that he had never seen a Chinese behaving in that way). It was also clear that Marshall Hall, like many of his countrymen in 1925, had no firm grasp or understanding of the sociology or anthropology of Chinese society. To run ‘amok' or 'amuck' is a Malay phenomenon; the Chinese have never been accused of this type of behaviour. The Malay word refers to a person who unexpectedly and frenziedly attacks with a kris anyone found in his track, and is only stopped when cut down or otherwise overcome.13 Rather lamely, the eminent K.C. concluded: 'I do not think we can get into the mind of an Oriental'. It was plain that Marshall Hall could not do so.\n\nThe counsel for the prosecution, Sir Ellis Griffith,1 said in reply to Marshall Hall's impassioned oratory, \"The upraised hand and uplifted voice is not for the prosecution'. The jury was out for only twelve minutes before they returned a verdict of 'Guilty'. Mr. Justice MacKinnon was greatly distressed when he came to pass sentence, for this was his first murder trial.1 \"You have been convicted by your adopted countrymen of this crime', the Judge said. He exhorted Lock to meet death with the bravery that a man should'. Since Lock had sat impassively\n\n15\n\npoker-faced throughout his trial at the Chester Assizes in 1926 and had asked his friends, before his trial, to see that he was buried next to his wife, the Judge's words have an odd ring. Marshall Hall lodged an appeal but Lock did not bother to attend in London, as was his right.\n\nSir Travers Humphreys writes:\n\n'English juries undoubtedly attach great importance to proof of motive where the evidence against the accused, of having done the act charged, is not very strong; while on the other hand, and particularly in charges of murder, they are quite ready to accept the direction of the trial judge to the effect that if the killing is clearly brought home to the accused, proof of motive",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209495,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 152,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "130\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nthe defence and prosecution). Miao was taken to the local police station for further questioning.\n\nMiao's trial at the Carlisle Assizes lasted three days October 22-24, 1928.88 The prosecution's case was purely circumstantial (as it so often is in murder trials), but nonetheless a strong one. The presiding judge was Sir Travers Humphreys, an experienced criminal lawyer recently raised to the Bench.34 No attempt will be made here to reconstruct the three-day trial in detail, only a few salient points will be discussed.\n\nWhen Miao's wife was found, her left hand was gloveless; the glove had been torn off and lay by her side. The two rings she wore that day had been removed. When Miao's hotel room was searched, two spools of film were found in cartons. The police decided to have them developed. On doing so, out popped the missing rings from the cassettes. Who could have hidden them but the murderer? The keys to Mrs. Miao's jewel-case were also found hidden in Miao's rolled-up dress-shirt. The jewel-case contained jewellery valued at over £3,000. Why were the keys concealed in that way? A point that also told strongly against Miao was his behaviour when his wife did not return promptly from her shopping expedition to Keswick. Would a recently married man calmly go to bed when his wife was missing in a strange town, in a strange country? (He was asleep, or at least in bed, when the police came to his bedroom at around 11 p.m.).\n\nAn enigmatic piece of evidence was obtained from Scotland. The couple had stayed at an Edinburgh hotel before they arrived in the Lake District. After they vacated the hotel, a chambermaid cleaned up their room, as is the custom, and found on top of a wardrobe three slips of paper with Chinese characters on each. For some reason, she did not dispose of the slips but kept them, which was providential. The characters, when translated, read:\n\nBe sure to do it on the ship\n\nDon't do it on the ship\n\nAgain consider on arrival in Europe\n\nMiao did not deny writing these words but claimed he did not now remember to what they referred. Mr. Justice Humphreys",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209496,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 153,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "131 \n\na Chinese, \n\nwas deeply concerned to do justice to the defendant a foreigner, a stranger in Britain and instructed the jury to disregard the matter since it had not been conclusively proved that the slips of paper were relevant to the murder charge. But the sinister import of the Chinese characters must have impressed itself upon the jurymen and it would be too much to expect that they did not speculate among themselves as to the evidential value of the translated sentences. If, in fact, the words did refer to Mrs. Miao's contemplated destruction (which seems likely), then her husband must have had murder in his heart before he left America, not long after his marriage to Siu Wai-sheung, a rich woman. Again, if this is so, it was a premeditated murder, not one born of impulse or passion, like most domestic murders in Europe and China, yesterday or today.\n\nMiao, Travers Humphreys tells us, was ably defended by Mr. J. C. Jackson K.C., but he had little to go on.35 The circumstantial evidence was overwhelming in its assemblage; the case for the defence speculative and insubstantial. Miao, through his counsel, argued that he and his wife had been followed by a gang of Oriental jewel thieves; and evidence was obtained from a few persons that two Oriental gentlemen, Chinese or Japanese, had been seen in the Derwentwater area at the time of the crime. These shadowy figures were neither identified nor located. The jury was left with the following puzzle: if members of an international gang, specialising in the theft of jewellery, had robbed and killed Mrs. Miao, why did one, or both, then attempt to sexually assault the victim of their greed? That was certainly not professional criminal practice. And, furthermore, forensic scientists had already demonstrated, convincingly, that the assault upon poor Mrs. Miao had been faked. There were, for example, no bruises upon her body. Who, then, would benefit from the murder, if we dismiss the shadowy robbers? Surely only the bereft husband.\n\nThe defence was not able to weaken the structure of circumstantial evidence deployed by the prosecution. The jury was out for an hour and a half and brought in a verdict of guilty. Mr. Justice Humphreys then sentenced Miao to death, on which he cried out 'I am not guilty!' and embarked on a voluble defence of his actions until stopped by the Judge.\n\nHis appeal was heard at the Court of Criminal Appeal,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    }
]