The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-04-18 00:00:00

THE SENTENCE ON JEAN LUIE AND
"CAPTAIN BROWN."

The trials of Jean Luie and "Captain Brown"
having terminated in a verdict of " Guilty " against
each, Mr. Justice Brett proceeded to pass sentence
upon them. Previous to the verdict being announced
against the prisoner Brown (who had appeared nervous
and anxious throughout the proceedings), he became
apparently overpowered by emotion. He turned his
back to the court to hide his tears, and put a handker-
chief to his face, while his frame shook with the NiO-
lence of his weeping.

Mr. Poland, acting on a suggestion from the learned
Judge, had declined to proceed with the indictment for
bigamy against the prisoner Line, leaving it on the
files of the Court.

The Judge, after a short pause, said: Let Luie stand
up. Let both the prisoners stand up.

The prisoner Luie or Lundgren, then stood up. His
countenance and bearing exhibited a marked contrast
to those of Brown. The latter still continued to sob
violently, and held to the front of the dock with both
hands. His body was trembling with emotion, and
his features, down which the tears were freely flowing,
, were highly flushed, and were convulsed with his at-
tempts to restrain his sobs. Lundgren, on the other
hand, wore an air of the most complete and apathetic
indifference. His face was of the same yellowish hue
that always distinguishes it, and there was no repeti-
tion of the burst of emotion with which the concluding
sentences of his address to the Court on the previous
day had been accompanied. During the sentence he
stood perfectly unmoved and in an easy position, some-
thing similar to that he has assumed during the course
of the triaL It was evident that the prisoner Brown
felt his situation most keenly, as he cried bitterly the
whole time ; but it would have been impossible from
Lundgren's utter lack of emotion or even apparent in-
terest to judge whether he felt his position or not.
When his sentence was concluded and he turned to
leave the dock be raised one hand and wiped his right
eye, but there was no sign of a tear visible. Brown
remained to hear his sentence, and was removed imme-
diately it was pronounced.
The sentence pronounced by the learned Judge was
as follows—You have both been convicted upon evi-
dence as clear as that upon which Arthur Orton was
convicted. You have both been convicted of wilful
perjury. Nothing can be snore essential to the ad-
ministration of the law than that it should be kept
free from perjured testimony. Ido not at all say that
testimony when perjured cannot be sifted, and that
the discovery of truth cannot be made, notwithstand-
ing perjury. If I were to say no, the facts of the case
which have been the foundation of the present cases
would belie what I am stating, but still, although some
people are of opinion that they could always
arrive at the truth, however perjured the testi-
mony might be, I cannot agree with them, and I am
sure it is the universal opinion that the real foundation
of correct administration if justice is that the testi-
mony should be honed, and it is a throwing away of
the law if, when perjury is brought home 1,0 the de-
fendants, they are not severely punished. But in all
cases of crime there are circumstances with regard to a
particular case. A man may commit perjury in a
slight degree, or under circumstances of great extenua-
ti en If when persons are being, as you were,
Liendgren, strongly cross-examined Os a trial in
which they had no interest, as to the whole of
their previous life in a place where they hadtived
for years, as to some crime which they had
committed in their youth, they commit perjury
they would be doing very wrong, and they would
have to abide by the law; but I should con-
sider such a case of minor importance. But wherever
a crime is deliberate; is committed for corrupt motives;
wherever it is committed in such a manner as would do
the greatest injury to innocent people ; wherever such
views are in the mind of a person who has committed a
crime, then it is a crime of the most serious nature.
Now, although the evidence you gave on the trial for
,perjury would not probably have affected the family
who were attenipted to be plundered by that wretched
man, Arthur Orton—although your evidence would not
have had the effect probably of endangering their
rights, and of exposing them to a second trial—yet I
cannot doubt that, misled by others, or tempted by
the folly of others, or misled by your own wicked-
ness, you had it in your mind that if you gave
the testimony which you did the prisoner then
bein„,e tried would, be acquitted of perjury, and
would thereby be re-established in the position that he
was Sir Roger Tiehborne, and that he could claim those
great estates. You, therefore, resolved deliberately to
commit this crime, and you did it in a most important
trial. You did it from corrupt motives, and you did
it in your own mind with the intent of putting inno-
cent people into the greatest danger. Your crime,
therefore, is the most serious of its class that can well
be imagined. But more than that. The law always
takes notice of what a man'S previous career has been.
You had not been an innocent man before. You had
been repeatedly convicted of crime, and that is smatter
lam bound to take notice of. Therefore the sentence
I have to pars upon you is the most severe that can
be passed for the crime of which you have been found
guilty. In one sense, I sip sorry for you. I ',sew yester-
day that you are a man of considerable bravery;
that you stood up to the results of your offence
like a brave man; and you did that which, to my
mind, did you credit—you forbore to put upon the
man who was, in a great measure, an accomplice of
yours, and uselessly to bring him forward and degrade
him although it was suggested to you. I recollect,
oo;that, I wave as you are, you were brought yester-
terday to tears—not unmanly tears but tears of
despair—when you thought of the servitude and
misery you are enduring, and must still undergo.
Although I say this does you credit, and so far I sym-
pathise with you, yet I cannot forbear from pronounc-
ing what I consider is the due and right sentence
of 'the law, and that is a formal one—namely, that
you be imprisoned for one day, but that after that
you be kept in penal servitude for seven years,
The prisoner Line was then removed.] Addressing
James Brown, the learned Judge said All I
have said to the other man applies to you; but there
is this difference, that I know not whether you have
been convicted before, and I think it would be wrong
if I did not make a distinction between your sentences.
But you also have been found guilty of a deliberate
crime—that of perjury—intended to endanger the
rights of innocent people. You also must suffer %most
severe sentence—perhaps more severe upon you be-
cause you have not undergone that miserable servitude
before. The sentence is that you be kept in penal ser-
vitude for five years.
The prisoner on hearing the sentence exhibited signs
of great bodily prostratiqp, and wept like a child. He
had to be assisted from the dock by two of the gaolers.