Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-09
JUROR SAVED THE PRISONER.
A Remarkable Case of Circumstantial
Evidence.

Evidence.
From the London Standard
Very eminent legal authorities agree that
as to the facts of case the jury is more
| likely to be right than the Judge This
week, however. we have had another addi-
ton to the lengthy list Of instances of the
judge censuring the jury upon its finding.
LAS clear a case as had ever come before
him. he said, as he ordered the jury to go
home.
Possibly the Judge was right. 1t is well
to remember however, that had all the
cases which have appeared so clear to the
judges gone as their lordships desired more
than few innocent men would have been
sent to the gallows. An instance comes to
mind, one of the most extraordinary in the
history of our legal system, the account of
which we owe to the man who tried and
presided over the trial. Lord Chief Justice
Dyer. This was clear case of murder
The victim had been found stabbed to death
in field wood, by his side the pitchfork
with which the deed had been done. The
man who owned the fork was arrested. and
the blood-stained suit he had worn was
found hidden in a mattress.
Short of testimony from any one who had
seen the crime actually committed, there
was not link missing from the chain of
evidence against the prisoner. 1t was in
vain That lie pieducu not guilty, everything
was SO conclusively clear against him. A
verdict of guilty was expected Immediately
from the jury, but the foreman asked that
as the life of a fellow-creature was at
stake the jury might be allowed to retire.
The judge did not understand why they
should do SO in so simple case; still the
jury had Its wish. 1t did not return. The
court adjourned for lunch; the jury did not
come back in the afternoon, and In spite of
several anxious inquiries from the bench IL
had not made up its mind when the court
rose for the day-there was one man hold
ing out. The jury was locked up for the
night and In the morning was brought into
court to return verdict of not guilty.
This was a poser and the Judge dismissed
the jury, saying: The blood of the de-
ceased lies at your door"
Private inquiry by the judge ELECTED the
fact that the foreman, man of unblem-
ished reputation and of considerable estate,
had been the cause of the verdict, which the
rest had been starved into accepting. The
Judge sent for this gentleman and in his
private room begged him to explain the
mystery of his obduracy and the amazing
finding of his fellows, first pledging himself
to preserve inviolate any confidence which
the other might repose IN him.
Then the foreman told him how he him.
self had met the victim for whose murder
the prisoner had been tried, how this man
had sought to take advantage of his Off
cial position and exact unjust tithes, how
they had quarreled and fought, how the
man had attempted to kill him with fork
and how he (the foreman of the jury had
killed his antagonist with his own pitch
fork, then fed The prisoner. coming
along had found the man dying, and in en-
deavoring to succor him had got blood upon
his clothes and in his confusion had taken
the dead mans fork and left his own in its
place This was why the foreman had held
out an why the prisoner escaped.