The Sun.
London, England, 1802-11-01 00:00:00

MURDER

lames Briscoe, larnes Denham,and Jarvis Baker,
were charged with the murder of Thomas PaMphlin,
by giving him a wound in the upper part of. the
billy, with a knife, in Compton,street, Clerken-
well, on the 4th of Oftober last

Mr. CoNsr and Mr. KNAPP were Catin.sel for
the Pros'ecutioni Mr. ALLEY for two of the Pri-
soners, I3riseoe and Denham,_and Mr. KNOwLYs
f6r Baker, against whom there was,very little
evidepce.

.Sheverian said, that he was servant .to a
tripeman, and knew the deceased for about six
months. Having met each other on the evening of
the 4th of Oanber, they went to a public-house,
and on coming away, the deceased, though not
drunk, was somewhat the worse for liquor. They
agreed to go home .together, anti he described the
local "situation of the places they had to pass through.
Qn coining near the, Harrow, public.home, in
Compton-sneet, the Witnt;ss was a little wayjx-
fore the 'deceased, -anti .p'assed yoiing women;
one' at the door, and the whet. coming _out of a.
green.shop, who.turrred,out to be cause of this
fortunate transaCtion : the deceased caught hold of
one of them ; he was not clear whether: he did it by
design, or whethei• he missed his step, and" so fell
against her. He heard her say, " I ;AM not one of
that 'sort." The deceased' replied,'."l like you
the better for that." He then heard the name of
Jem called out ; on which he turned round to the
deceased, and asked him to come along, home. He
had scarcely spoke the words, when. three men sun-
rottnded the deceased ; he supposed them to come
from the Harrow public-house. Briscoe was the
first who closed 'with. Pan!phlin,' Smith followed,
and Denham was
.the next. -fie saw Briscoe make
two or three blows :it Pamphlin with his fist,, as -he
supposed ; but he could discern no more, as several
others then came round him, and separated him from'
his friend. Denhani was one of them. After "a
short time, he was enabled to make 11:.s escape, and
run' up Compton-street. He had. not got far when
the deceased came running after him. He waited
for him, when the deceased asked him (the Witness)
boy!, 'he came off? Witness replied, he 'only felt a
bliiW he had received in his face, The deceasedo
said, he had'not come off so •Well, for he felt his
side exceedingly. sore. They, then 'parted, and went
to their respective homes.

On his- Cross-examination he denied that Briscoe
was knocked down ; but said, that Pamphlin was
a stout than, and twice as big as Briscoe. The
language made use of to the two women, he ad-
mitted to he highLy indecent and scandalous.
A Person wha.lodged.in the, same room with the
deceased, described .the manner of his coming home
on The night of the 4th of Otaoher ; lying down on,
the•bed without pulling
_off his olothes, • which in-
duced Ihe Witness, at first, to conclUde that he was
in liquor. After remaining in that .manner for
some 'time, the candle went our, and the. Witness
cle3l ring; Pamphlin to undress himself and•go,•to bed,
he complained a good deal, and said he 'was not able.
The Witness then got another candle, and heTping-
him to undress, observed that his side was very
bloody, and that he had rece;ved, three wounds with
Some sharp instrument, one on. the left side of the
belly,. which appeared- to be the most severe, ano.
chef in the right side of the belly, and the third in the
back, just under the bladc.bone, in,comeguence- of
which, he applied for the assistance of. a Surgeon,
and the deceased was 'conveyed to an Hospital.

The clothes of the deceased were then produced
and exhibited. The jacket had a large cut in the
back, near the shoulder, and the waistcoat and shirt,
which were. .much clotted -with blood, had the
marks. of the two wnunds given on each side of the
belly. The cuts had all the appearance of having
seen made by a knife.
'William-Smith was with the Prisoner on the 4th
of OEtober, in the Harrow public_house, 'together
with the Prisoner's wife aid her sister. About half
past nine o'clock in the eV'ening, the girls,i,vent out
to buy apples ; he followed soon after,. and saw two
young men behaving exceeding impudent. to them,
and using very gross language. Mrs. Briscoe went
into the public-house, and called her husband, who
iinmediaiely.came out, and pulled from his pocket
a clasplenife, which he opened, and went up to one
of the men." Denham followed with a knife that.
opened like a razor. They both. cut-away at the
men,, and made them 11y.. He did not see the men
strike again. After they were gone, Briscoe re-
turned to the public-house, and, as he entered the
door) gave Jarvis Baker a knife ; exclaiming,—
" Here, take the knife I have been using." lie
knew the knife, for that afternoon as he and Briscoe
were coining from Merlin's Cave, Briscoe said, he
believed he• had. lost his knife; but on feeling his
pockets- he found it there, pulled it out, and slimed
it him. Witness, the Prisoners, and.the two girls,
staid at the Harrow till eleven. While they were
there, Brisce said, there had been a bloody row.
He did not see Baker do any thing. • -
The knife shown by Briscoe, he said, had a buck-
horn

On being cross-examined, he admitted, that one
of the women said to the deevased,'" We are not of
your sort," and that he replied, he liked her the bet-
ter for it ; but the language; an the whole, •was
very atrocious. He came out of the ,house for a
certain occasion; before the women were ad-
dressed by Pampfilin, whom he did not see coin.
ing up, as his back was to them at that time.—
lie not himself interfere in the fray, and never
said to any one„ that he had himself struck the de-
ceased, or given him the wound. He did not-see
briscoe knocked dow-n, and at the-time the parties
came out of the publie-hotsse, the two men, Pamph.
lin and Shevenan; were' going away, and had got
about a yard•and a half from the door, when they
were assailed. The Witness had never ,seen the
posting bills
.offering a reward of sof. for the de-
teaion of the murderers ; if he had seen them it
would have been to no purpose, as he could not

LONDON : Yrinteci by !Mei-IA NA N M'hl I 1,1. A N, lot Pow-Strect, Covent-Garden);
At the SyN-01,1, lc No, f 12, S'trara; where Aavertifements, Orden

Mrs. T3fiscoe's.evidence been of thfit nature, tbat it
would tend to convict Denham, it might have been
brought forward in support oE the charge, as the
Lawyers for the Crown had it in their option to
ipdift 'the Parties separately, in which case they
might have the advantag'e of Mrs. Briscoe's tes.:
timony against any one but her husband. If then,
such was the case when evidence was to be given
against a Prisoner, how much more strongly should
the. principle which direEted the established rules
of evidence to apply to the situation of aDefendaut,
according to that maim of Law, "fortior est coif-
ditio defendentis?". The Prisoners had no option in
the manner of their being' indided, and. if he suc-
ceeded, not in this application, the consequence
-would be,. that. the Crown Lawyers, making the
Indietment a'-joint one, deprived Denham of the
strongest evidence he could produce in his defence.
He further submitted, that his' proposal was a ma-
ter of indispensible necessity, from the difference
subsisting between the present charge and .every
other 'crime. Whatever was df.!ne now. would be
irrevocable if the Parties- were Convicted, for the
ACI of Parliament which enjoined that the sentence
should be executed in 4.8 hours, left no. time for
revision or future-consideration.

. _
Mr. ,CONST and Mr. KNAPP replied to this,
that when two Parties were associated in the same
critne, the regular proceeding always must be to
indict them jointly, but in,sn'doing, they were _not
excluded-from the advantage of any eVidence the
Law and rules of evidence-would otherwise have
permitted. All the Prisoners were competent to
make their, several-,challenges at alp .commekicement'
of the trial ; the eWet of -.vhich would be, their
-.being tried, separately. If that had been done by
themselves or their COunsel,'Denham might have
had all the benefit he could, expel to receive froM•
Mrs: Briscoe's- testimony ; an if they let the op-
portunity go by, it was erroneous to suppose, that
if there- should ' be any doubts in, the mind of the
Judge, or any mistaken circumstances in the-ease,
the Judie had not the same power of revising it as/
in any other, and therefore, that observation did
not apply. Upon
,the .whole, they considered the
application as'novel, unprecedented, and unneces.
sary, such *as the Court could no' more. listen to,
than to that for, a Special Yerdi;4, and ii:tended as
an indired mode of exciting the compassion of the
Jury ; .whereas, the Law could in no case permit a
wkfe to be evidence either for or against her
husband. „

Mr. Baron ?I'llomPsorst was averse to dispensing
with . the wise and .established rules of Law, and
could not think himself justified in admittinithe.evi.
dence'oflVits. Briscoe, which the Learned Counsel
himself h;;;.1 confessed must operate equally for. her
hasha'nd tis for Denham. There Were, indeed,
stances,,. where wives were allowed to give evidence
in favOur.:of Prisoners joined in the same India-
:Dent with their husbands,- such as ib prove an
alibi, lunacy,-. or something else_ whkh may be a
sufficient defence, for one party, at the same time
that it had no •connedion• whatever with the
other.

Mr. IitLEY. said he did not exped to sec him-
self so hardly doalt with on the part of his learned
friends, as to find them sospeaing_that he wished
`to take an indirea mode of exciting the compassion
of the Jury. He scorned any such praaice, and ne.
ver had, nor -ever would adopt it. he bowed with
great deference- to the opinion intimated sby the
Court, but hoped for its indulgence,if, having been
called Upon for precedents, he took the liberty of
quoting some few which occurred to him at themo-
ment, for he was in-a great measure unprepared,
having been hastily applied to, by his present
clients. The first case he would refer to, would be
found in the Crown Reports; the "'King v. Peru,"
in a case which came on to be tried, according to
the At of Parliament,' in Bristol, -before the Re-
corder, Ml. Gtaus, whom his Lordship knew to
:be inferiorlo no person
,whateverin profound legal
knowledge. - Mr. Perry was indiCfed for running
away with, and marrying. an heiress against the
form anti meaning of the stature. Mr.- EtisKiNE
went down there, being specially detained ; and for •
the defence called, Mrs. Perry, the wife of the
Defendant, ' ,vao of course objeaed to by the .
Counsel for the Crown, and, after very long and
elabOrite arguments on bOth sides, Mr. Gt BBS de-
cid.ed that sl,e was a. competent Witness, and, on her
testimony, her husband was acquitted. The prin-
ciple -on 'whieh Mr. GIB BS decided„ was thatin
whieh he now applied for the adinisSion of Mrs.
Briscoe, being ex necessitate rein' the strongest of all
principles. The second precedent.he would refer
to, occurred in 'the trial of Lord AIiDi,EY and his
servant, for committing a rape upon his Lady, who
was alloWed to give her evidence in proof of that
abominable crime. The third he would refer to,Was
that of accused
a.persono committing on his 'wife
,f
a crunen non nomznandum, under ‘,vluch`he was cob_.
vied 'solely 'upon her testimony. TheSe three
admissions of such witnesses, and, .he had no doubt,
thai, had he tithe to inquire for authorities,- he
would find them pretty numerous, were made ex
necessitate rei. h ivns. that also on which he
grounded his application, for he conceived the case
to be perfeettly novel; For, on as certain cause,'in
which he was .engaged,; he once, had the industry to
travel through -all the books and cases he could
find. on this subjea, from the Revolution to ,the
present, time ; and he was ready to assert,. that. he
had'not met with any similar to the present. The •
case then being quite new required a.departUre from
the usual pradiee, and it was no 'subversion:of an-
cient rules to adopt* here a new one, which Would
be more applicable to all the circumstances.
'Mr. Baron THomrsox said, that in the cases re-
ferred' to, the' wife was admitted only in proof of
personal injury, of which there could be no other'
evidence. He had a very great resped for. the
Judge alluded to (Mr. GfEas), in the Bristol cause
quoted, but he believed, the ground of his admitting
Mrs. Perry's evidence, was, that, had she been
'forced away by violence, she might give evidence
against the defendant ; and therefore, in the .opi-
pion of that judge, ought to be allowed to give her•
testimony in like manner.for him.

, The first witness called for the defence was a
young man, who stated that he lived in the same

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