The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1873-01-09

fg sl.s,aia.aF hen criueisu aa tae
case. Has Haaar the8 charged that
whether deceased Was good 30 had. q
man q vie habits CT personally pure
ard Firtaaas. wss o matter mes a. issue
Ne.shsi have the business &C social re-
iatiabs II tbe prisoner. 90 the character
and position Of h5s friends any refer
eaee 50 ibe case. Every man was
equally entitled 20 protection before
the court and g. equal penalty for bic
crime. ard neither the vengeance or ha.
tired ofFisk' friends, or iAc sympatbics
and sauuws Of the prisoner should
warp their judgment ., would bo
disgrace g. the administration % jus
tice Il they permitted their verdict e. bee
reached Though such instrumeniaiiiies
and rcpruach ca each Of them indiviJu,
ally, the killing q Fisk by the prisoner
bring practically conceded. and dis
carjiag the other circumstances sur
rounding the case which should not be
considered. let them sec what was the
real point a, issue. The question was
whether such killing was or was not
a crime, and that question was confined
within exceedingly narrow limits
Counsel on both sides agreed that the
Killing was either murder in the first
degree or manslaughter in the third, or
iustGable homicide To determine
that point il was important to consider
were there two pistols found or only
the one produced, and which il conced-
ed 10 be the prisoners and whether the
prisoner was acting in self defence
whether Fisk having no pistol and be.
ing incapable Of making a dangerous
assault, the firing was iustiiable.
Having alluded to the discrepancy in
the testimony as not necessarily invol
wing the untruthfulncss or want of in
telligenee TO the witnesses, but all Of
which were questions for the jury, he
called attention 10 the strong motives
Of the prisoner to testify incorrectly in
case he was guilty He then explained
the theory Of the prosecution that there
was but one pistol and that the killing
was unjustitiable, and the theory Of the
defence that there were two His Hon
or intimated that the jury might con
slider another theory, viz; that the
witnesses for the prisoner who testified
they saw a lady pick up pistol on the
stairs was reconcilable with the state
meut that Stokes dropped his own pis-
iol on the stairs, that the lady who was
there picked it up, and the gentleman
she showed it to concealed it for fear
Of the possible consequences of their
knowledge But that theory had the
disqualification that it won not re
concilc SO much Of the testimony as
either Of the others. No one testified
to seeing a pistol in F,k's hands ex-
cept the prisoner. The silence Of the
prisoner when arrested did not neces.
sarily involve guilt His Honor then
called attention 70 the hues Of the evil
dence, and said if the jury believed the
prisoner fred from premeditated design
to kill without danger or reasonably be-
!ieving himself in danger, they should
fnd verdict Of murder in tue LIST de.
gree, unless they found verdict Of
manslaughter in the 3D., aud on the lat
ter point they were to consider if there
was a conflict. and whether the char
acter Of Fisk as to personal violence
was such, and known to the prisoner,
as from menaces, TO lead TO apprehen.
sion Of danger. On that point only,
viz whether the deceased was a per-
sonally violent and dangerous man or
not, were they TO consider his charac-
ter Ii was the duty Of the prisoner
to satisfy them that the killing was not
murder His Honor then explained
the kind Of doubt TO which the prison.
er would be entitled, and in conclusion
sad il would be great misfortune If
the Jury now disagreed. Ordinarily
twelve honest intelligent men do, after
consideration, make up their minds,
and agree. Where passion, prejudice
OF obstinacy, on other motive, is pre-
sent they DO not He made these re
marks because the jury on the former
trial disagreed The prisoner was eth
er guilty. and should be convicted, or
innocent and be acquitted, and His
Honor did not atieipate disagree
mont in this case Tho Jury then re-
tired.
On Monday morning Stokes was
again brought into court and sentenced
to be hang Feb 25th, the shortest time
allowed by law. His lawyers will en-.
ieavor 10 get a stay ofproceedings and
new trial. failing in this they will
seek a pardon from the Governor. but
Gen Dix is hardly the man for that,
so the prospect, for, long life 20 Mr..
stokes II not very tlattcring, and sever.