The weekly pioneer and Democrat., 1860-04-13
The Mysterious Murders.

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G. w.
The Mysterious Murders.
From the N. Y. Times.
Legal questions of interest, if not of diff.
Guilty, will doubtless arise upon the trial of
johnson, alias Hicks, now in prison, on
charge of having murdered Capt. Burr at
sea. The idea is very common, that there
can be no conviction for murdnr unless the
body of the killed be found. 1t is true there
is rule that no person should be convicted
in the absence Of the body and very
great English Judge once said q" would
never convict any person of murder or man.
slaughter, unless the fact was proved to be
done, or the body be found dead" But
this must be taken with qualification and
the circumstances may be sufficiently strong
to show the fact of the murder, though the
body has never been found. Thus, when a
prisoner, a mariner named Clark, was in.
dicted in England for the murder of his cap
tain at sea, and witness stated that the
prisoner had proposed to kill the captain
the witness, being afterwards alarmed in the
night by violent noise, went upon deck,
and there observed the prisoner take the
captain up and throw him overheard into
the sea, and that he was rot seen or heard oi
afterwards that near the place where the
captain was seen, billet of wood was found
and that the deck and part of the prisoners
dress were stained with blood,--the Court
though admitting the general rule of law
left it to the jury to say, upon the evid ence
achether the deceased aUas not killed before his
body a0as t.roaOn into the sea and the jury
being of that opinion, the prisoner was con-
victed, and-the conviction being approves
of by all the judges-was afterwards exc.
cuted.
The prisoners counsel was the we'll known
GarrOw-afterwards Baron GarrOw-who
insisted that the prisoner was entitled to be
acquitted, on the ground that it was not
proved that the captain was dead and that
as there were many ships and vessels near
the place where the transaction was alleged
to have taken place, the probability was that
be was taken up by some of them, and was
then alive and to strengthen this view the
counsel mentioned the following remarkable
case: A mother and father of natural
child were observed to take the child to the
margin Of the dock at Divergool, and after
stripping it, cast it into the dock. The
body of the infant was not afterwards seen
and as the tide of the sea flowed and refowed
into and out of the dock, the Judge upon the
trial of the father and mother for the murder
of their Child observed that it was possible
the tide might have carried out the living
infant; and upon this ground the Jury, by
his direction, acquitted the prisoner.
1t has been decided in the United States
Court, in Boston, that conviction for MUIR
der may take place when the body is not
found. Counsel put forward the PROPOSE
tion that there oug ght not to be conviction
for murder unless the murdered body was
actually found ; but Judge Story remarked
that such proposition certainly could not
be admitted as correct, in point of common
sense or of law, unless Courts of Justice
were to establish positive rule to screen
persons from punishment who might be gull
ty of the most fagitious crimes. "In the
case of murders committed on the high seas, ="
observed the Judge. "the body is rarely, if
ever, found and a more complete encour>
agement and protection for the worst offences
of this sort could not be invented than rule
of this strictness. 1t would amount to a
universal condonation of all murders COM
mitted on the high seas"
1t is quite probable that the bodies of the
men murdered on board the sloop E. A..
johnson will never be found and this fact
will add to the difficulties that may oppose
the conviction of any one for this crime.
But, as the above citations show, these OBJ.
jections will not in themselves be conclusive.
If the evidence in other respects is satifacto.
ry, the absence of the body will be no insu-
perable bar to conviction.