Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-12-08
Jury:
CHARGE TO THE JURY.


At the close of Attorney General Reeds
address. Judge Walton. on Tuesday. charged
the jury as follows:
Gentlemen Of the Jury -
Many, and perhaps most of you, may be
serving upon jury for the first time in your
lives. Ii is BY no means improbable. that no
one of you ever before sat in capital trial, and
it is exceedingly important that. at the outset,
you should have a clear and distinct under
standing Of what is required of yoi. That can
only be done by your having an equally clear
and distinct understanding of what i. required
of me. Under our system of administering
Justice, it is the duty of the presiding judge
to decide what the law is; and it is the duty
of the jury to be guided by the law, as the
Judge shall declare it to be.
You will notice that while l speak now,
every word that am saying is being taken
down by an expert short hand reporter,
and will be preserved. If l make any,
even the smallest error in the course of my
charge to you, there is a tribunal that will
correct it; but you are not that tribunal; it is
the full court of this State. All my rulings,
all my sayings, sentence by sentence, word
by word, can be revised by the full court, if
the prisoner or his counsel thinks he is there
by aggrieved.
Hence GU see the wisdom of our manner
of administering justice. The law which is
to be the guide of all our citizens, and is to
control and govern their conduct, is to be
openly decided in the presence, not only of
the jury and the parties concerned, but of an
intelligent and learned bar, who wili watch
with eagle eye, and will he ready in an instant
to detect any, even the slightest error.
But if YOU should think that am wrong in
any Of my rulings, and you should attempt TO
4 a.. L. 49,.
vate, and not in public; ifyou should commit
an error yourselves, however fatal it might be
to the prisoner or to the public, there would be
no means of correction; it would be an error
that would be beyond remedy.
| therefore desir. that you shall understand
clearly. that the important questions of law
raised in this case are not to trouble you ut
all. have resting upon me the respon 'ihil-
ity to answer these questions, and you will he
entirely relieved from any responsibility, with
| regar to them. For Instance, what degree of
insanity will excuse "A person for his criminal
acts, is question of law. Whether a 'nan
who believes, or suspects, or even knows that
neighbor has had criminal intercourse with
his wife, may lawfully pursue him, and kill
him, is a questior of law for me, and one
which | must d, termine upon my RESPONSE
biity.
| Hence, it may seem TO you as if the presd-
| ing Judge had the whole Of this case to decide.
For you cannot have failed to notice the great
stress the prisoner counsel attaches 20 these
propositions, and all the arguments and all
the authorities that have been read to you,
were really and properly intended for me.
You noticed that when counsel rose TO make
their arguments, they said.-''May it please
your Honor as well as lyon, gentlemen OF
the jury" While in form they read TO you
the law and addressed TO you their arguments.
1t is to be supposed, and as matter of fact
they were, intended for me, because they
we're questions of law for me to determine,
and were not questions of fact for you.
have no doubt that after listening TO the clo-
squent argument by the learned counsel for the
prisoner, you have at times had your juds-
ment distracted and your passions aroused
until you could scarcely reason or tell what
the Law was, or /, II what il ought to be, anc
= you may, at times, have felt as if there wer,
resting upon you degree of responsibility
' that you would give the world to escape from
ButwhenI instruct you, as it is my sworn duty
to dc, what the law of this State Is, and Tho
rules by which you are to find your verde
e in this case, You will find that your dutie
2 will seem to you much lighter, that the cast
after all will be by no means a diffcnlt on
for the jury, however arduous or fficult
, may be for the presiding judge. For the grea