Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-19
The Smith Murder Trial.

Smith Apparently Indifferent.
 The Superior Court room was filled yester-
 day afternoon at o'clock, which was the
 time fixed at the adjournment on Thursday
 last for the reopening of the court. The
 trial of James Smith, of Ansonia, for the
 murder of Chief of Police Daniel J. Hayes,
 of that borough, had so far proceeded at the
 time of adjournment that nothing was re-
 quired but the charge of Chief Justice Park
 and the verdict of the twelve men selected to
 try the case. His Honor the Chief Justice
 took his seat on the bench at PHO p. m., and
 after the usual formality of opening the court
 commenced his charge, speaking in substance l as follows The indictment in this case,
 which was found by the grand jury at for
 mer term of this court, charges the prisoner 1 at the bar with the crime of murder-murder
 in the first degree. The accused pleads that
 he is not guilty of this great crime Your
 charge is to determine, according to the evi-
 dence, whether he is or is not guilty. The killing of one human being by another is homicide. It is justifable when no wrong l whatever is intended, and eKcusable when the homicide was by pure accident, or when it was done in self defense or vixen person l is assailed and in attempting to flee from his
 assailant, and after putting forth every effort
 to save himself seizes some instrument and
 kills his assailant. If justifable or excusable | then it does not become murder. Man | slaughter when involuntary, is where by
 carelessness person may kill another with out intending to do any harn.~ Voluntary manslaughter is where two persons get into | a1t aTH f1ah haof of kills the other without any reconciliation whatever. In the given case of homicide, if | it is found that it does not come under the
 class of justifable homicide, or excusable or | inexcusabIe homicide, then it comes under the | head of murder. By the common law and l up to recent period, all cases of killing were classified as murder. But now the crime of murder is divided into two degrees (Chfef Justice Park here read the law bearing on \ this point. These degrees of murder differ | from murder aforethought. All murders, says the statute, perpetratedby means of poi | son shall be murder in the first degree. It is plain to be seen that murder cannot be | committed in this way except by malice | aforethought. So where there is lying in wait for a person the murder cannot be
 
 l hence murder in the first degree. To be | murder, there must be an intent shown that \ the party had intended by malice afore- | thought to commit the crime with which he \ is charged. In considering malice it must not be considered to be hatred murder has 1 often been committed without hatred. In the killing of We'll Shipman at the State prison there was no hatred, but there was | resolve to escape at all hazards and if they 1 failed to do it there was an evident intent to | commit murder to accomplish their purpose. So in the case of Bucholz; he had no hatred against the man he murdered, yet he was ready to murder in order to obtain the money of the man he murdered. Implied malice is sufficient to constitute murder in the second degree. Malice may also be in ferred by gross negligence in certain cases, as when man throws stones from the roof
 of building and kills people on the street.
 In the case before you, if you find murder in the first degree you will so return to the
 court; if you find the prisoner guilty of
 murder in the second degree you will re-
 turn, and SO if you find him guilty of man
 slaughter The law regarding evidence was
 here read by the judge to show that the evi-
 dence must be equal to the evidence of two
 competent and reliable witnesses equiva- lent thereto In circumstantial evidence this
 could not be obtained. The law is such that it leaves it so that every juror might have different standpoint of comparison. The meaning of this statute, in the opinion of the court, is that it changed the law so far as capital cases is concerned, so that the dan ger of mistake by proving by one witness that murder had been committed was abol- l ished, and the Legislature changed the law so 1 that two witnesses shall be required. But 1 this does not apply to murder in the second l degree, and this may be proven although l there should not be two witnesses to prove 1 the offense The rule is that the accused l must be acquitted, if at all, by every reason nI1 Ia kl,ooso T II.s- case are the judges of both the law and the | fact. While judges of the law they are not | judges in any such sense as to disregard it. l They are not law makers but law administra- l tors and are to go by the law as they find it. | If the jury finds the accused guilty of less | crime than charged, they should go by the | evidence as they found it. They must, of | course, be satisfied beyond @ reasonable doubt | that the party is guilty of the crime. If the | jury find that the officer dealing unjustly | and the accused was acting in self defense then he cannot be convicted of murder. In the investigation of every case the first question that presents itself is whether the crime has been committed by anyone If that is deter mined 1n one way, so goes the case. First has the crime been committed; then was it committed by the accused? So we are called | upon in this case to consider the death of Daniel J. Hayes. Was he killed by the &C., cused as stated by the indictment !? In the evidence for the State it is stated that Hayes received pistol shot wound in the abdomen and the ball penetrated the small and large intestines, resulting, as it surely must, in death. It is claimed on the part of the de- fense that the physician in probing the wound probed it too deep and accelerated Hayes death. It is certain that a party can- not screen himself by saying that some one trying to do the injured man good did him harm. The question then arises, Who inflicted this wound Was it Hayes himself or the ea10 4-l l1c.. Ig I self and was the deceased's pistol accidental ly discharged in his own body, causing his death? If so the accused is not guilty of murder. It is said that in the struggle the accused attempted three times to discharge his pistol at Hayes and that the deceased tried three times to get possession of the same. It is said also that the accused on the night of the firing and the next morning made no denial of his shooting Hayes and he made no effort to conceal the fact from anyone It is said on the part of the deceased that blood was found on his hand and on his pis- sol. It is said on the part of the accused that only three discharges were made from his pistol before this affray and therefore his pistol could not have done the deed. Again t is alleged that the accused had reloaded his 2 pistol somewhere, after firing his pistol in a I saloon, and that he went home afterward and lad time to reload his pistol. Again, it is 'ald that the deceased's pistol shows two dis charges which have not been accounted for t is also said that when dying he wanted his pistol put away as though he desired to con ,eal the evidence that it had been discharged 0n the other hand it is claimed hat it was Hayes only desire hat the pistol should be preserved as evi- lence against the accused, and that he had no | lesire to conceal the pistol at all If you are Il atlsfed, gentlemen, that there was no design II n the part of the accused to commit murder I: hen you will so find. Again, Hayes was 1$ hlef of police of the village of Ansonia, and |. is said that Smiths father had requested his rrest, andit was unquestionably the duty of lf he officer to arrest the man. He went in IF he ordinary way to arrest him and the &C., IS used resisted, which was unlawful and a rime The officer had a right to discharge l9 is duty after informing a party that he anne to arrest him, and if in the discharge his duty he was killed by the party, it m 'as murder in one of the degrees. The evi- To ence shows that Hayes did so do his duty. = he accused claims that it is unreasonable e' suppose that he would have gone | al own the street as he did with the M nicer and afterward have shot Hayes but 21 eCIareS that tho 0acnased Tny,o@ 1o1a l,on. |