Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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Without A Jury Of Your Own
Countrymen - Without The Power Of Making Adequate Defence, By Speech Or
Witness - You Are
To stand the pressure of every thing that can be alleged
against you, and your only chance of escape is,
Not the strength of your
own, but the weakness of your adversary's case. Surrounded as your trial
was with difficulties, everything, I believe, was done that could be done
to place your case in a proper light before the jury. They have come to a
conclusion satisfactory, no doubt, to their consciences. Whatever might
be the disadvantages under which you laboured, they were convinced, as I
am, that you destroyed the life of Dillon; and as there was nothing
proved to rebut the presumption, of English law, arising from the fact of
homicide being committed by you, they were constrained to find you guilty
of murder. There may have been circumstances, if they could have been
proved, which would have given a different complexion to the case from
that of the dying declaration of the deceased, communicated to the Court
through the frail memory of two witnesses, who varied in their relation
of his account of the transaction. This declaration, so taken, was to be
regarded as if taken on oath, face to face with your accuser; and,
although you had not the opportunity of being present at it, and of
cross-examining the dying man, yet by law it was receivable against you."
In vol. ii. p 380, Captain Grey says:
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