The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-28 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORFOLK CIRCUIT—MARCH 26.
Crown Court—(Before Mr. Justice Erle).
The charge of murder against John Ducker was
finished at a late hour yesterday evening. The pri-
soner was charged with the wilful murder of Ebe-
nezer Tye, a police constable, at Halesworth, on the
24th of last December.

His lordship summed up the case with a clearness
and power that laid the whole story before the jury.
After stating the law to be that if an attack was
made on the prisoner without any authority justi-
fying it, and he made only a due amount of resist-
ance, it would be a case of justifiable homicide ; if
the violence used in the resistance was unnecessary
it would be a case of manslaughter; while if an
officer had a reasonable ground for believing that a
felony had been committed, he was justified in
arresting, and if death resulted from resistance con-
sequent upon the arrest, then it would be murder;
went on to analyze the evidence, and assuming that
death was caused by violence in a conflict between
two men, said the question whether the prisoner
was the man would depend, first, on the conduct of
the prisoner up to the time of the conflict, and,
secondly, after it. He then showed the effect of the
evidence given by witnesses who had heard foot-
steps, voices, scuffiings, and groans, as well as of
that describing the state of his clothes on this part
of the charge ; and then—with reference to the
point whether this was a case ofiammicide, man-
slaughter, or murder—directed the jury that justi-
fiable homicide was out of the question, left it to
them to decide upon the more serious question of
murder or manslaughter, as to which two facts
were most important—first, that the deceased con-
stable was set by his oflioer to watch the prisoner ;
and, next, that the hay, the broom, and the sweep-
ing in front of the house were elements in the con-
bider ation of the felonious conduct of the prisoner, in
which the identity of the hay was all-important. If
the prisoner was engaged in taking the hay, or if
there was a third person bringing it and leaving it
at the prisoner's, and then Tye tried to arrest him,
he was justified in doing so, because he was
committing a felony. If the jury should think the
death was caused by the prisoner, it would be for
them to consider whether there was anything to
reduce the crime from murder to manslaughter ;
then, if the constable had reasonable cause for be-
lieving a felony had been or was being committed,
the prisoner would be guilty of murder.
The jury, after having been in deliberation for
three-quarters of an hour, returned it4to court, and,
amid the deep silence of the audience, gave their
verdict of guilty of murder.
His Lordship, assuming the black cap, sentenced
the prisoner to death, adding, " The evidence shows
that with deliberate malice you planned the death
of Ebenezer Tye. I can hold out no hope, and I
see none for you."
The prisoner is a very remarkable man in appear-
ance, broad in figure, with a most determined-
looking cast of countenance ; and, except for a
minute, as the verdict was given, he never flinched
or seemed moved during the whole trial. About a
year and a half ago the policeman Tye was most
severely wounded in an affray with two thieves,
whom he had been set to watch, and so gallant was
his conduct then that he received a reward from the
Court.

Isaac Humphery surrendered to his bail, and was
charged with feloniously discharging a gun at Isaac
Reed, with intent to murder, at Polstead, on the 6th
December, 1861.
Mr. Bulwer and Mr. Stephenson were counsel for
the prosecution ; Mr, O'Malley, Q.C., and Mr. Or-
ridge defended the prisoner.
The case has excited very great interest in the
district from which it comes, as much from the re-
spectability of the prisoner, who is a farmer and
owner of upwards of 300 acres in this county, as
from the peculiar character of the evidence and the
length of time that had elapsed between the com-
mission of the offence and the trial.
The story of the prosecution, which was supported
by the evidence, was to this effect—that Reed, the
prosecutor, who had been running with the hounds
during the day in question, went in the evening to
a public house called the Shoulder of Mutton,
and having to pass a somewhat lonely spot on
his road home, called King Harry's-grove, which
was a sort of spinney protected from the road
by a bank and ditch, suddenly felt himself struck,
and immediately heard the report of a gun. He
called out that he was shot, dropped his stick, and
fell on the ground ; but just at the time he was fall-
ing he saw, as he swore, the figure of a tall man rise
out of the ditch upon the brow of the bank, and there
disappear. He managed to get home, but fainted
away from loss of blood, and on the surgeon visiting
him there was no doubt that he was most severely
hurt by a gunshot wound. The night was dark and
very rainy, and the time at which the transaction
took place was about a quarter past 6. To connect
the prisoner with the charge the following facts
were deposed to by several witnesses :—ln the first
place he was as one of them, at that time a labourer
in his employ, said, moving about his own premises
at a quarter past 5 dressed in a long white coat,
reaching down to his heels, and was also seen by
this man leaving his farm and going towards King
Harry's-grove; secondly, he was observed by two
witnesses not only close to the publichouse above-
mentioned at about 6 pin,, but close to the taproom
window looking in (Reed being at that. time in it),
which place he left about 10 minutes past 6; thirdly,
two witnesses, who knew him well, and were com-
ing in such a direction along the road from Reed's
house that they must pass the grove, stated that they
saw a man dressed in a long white coat, and one of
them said "That's old Buck" (a nickname he went
by), whereupon he jumped into the ditch. In the
next place, he was seen and identified on the road
towards the prosecutor's house about the time speci-
fied above, and going on towards King Harry's-grove.
While, lastly, it was shown by a plan of the place,
which was produced, and proved that it would be
quite out of his way to go past King Harry's-grove
to his own house from the Shoulder of Mutton pub-
lichouse. But by none of the witnesses who passed
and saw him was any gun observed iu his hands,
the prosecution accounting for that by the darkness
of the night and the facility his dress afforded for
concealment. It was also proved that on the morn-
ing after the occurrence he was visited by the

police, whose suspicions were turned to him because
of the known ill-feeling between himself and the
prosecutor, and in answer to the questions put, said
he had not been out of the house on the night in
question. The motive for committing such an act
was a strong ill-feeling on his part towards Reed,
arising out of disputes and lawsuits; and Reed's
wife was called to prove that he had on one occa-
sion said to her, "- you ; I'll lay you and your
husband low;" and another witness spoke to this
expression of his against Reed, "- him ; I wish
I had him dead, and then there would not have
been this trouble." Besides the above facts and the
expressions just mentioned, there was evidence of
dome boots used by him, cleaned in the afternoon,
and found dirty next morning, and also of footmarks
across some fields near Kiug Harry's-grove. For
the defence it was elicited in cross-examination that
most of the witnesses were strongly prejudiced
against the prisoner by quarrels and lawsuits, in all
of which the prisoner was victorious. It was also
shown that he was most unpopular in the neigh-
bourhood.
Mr. O'Malley, in his address to the jury, pointed
out to them the length of time that had elapsed
since the transaction, the fact that every circum-
stance connected with the affair was known to the
police within a few hours after it had happened,
the weakness of the evidence as to the footmarks,
and the varied statements of the policemen on this
point, the fact that motive was wanting, because
the prisoner had always bad the best of it in his
suits, and malice is borne by those who lose, not by
those who win, and commented generally on the
improbable nature of the story as affecting the pri-
soner.

After a most careful summing up,
The jury returned a verdict of Guilty.
The prisoner was sentenced to penal servitude for