The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-09
JUSTICE IN
OLO[N TIME
A .1omicide Trial Begun
and Ended in
a Day.

| the Fort street tragedy and the famous
criminal trial of which it was the oc-
allegorical method by a distinguished
| visitor of the time. 1t was while in
structing the jury in this trial that
| Chief Justice Judd gave the .'stone
WALL ruling. namely, that before a
pursued person should kill his pursuer
in self-defense he must have his flight
intercepted by an insurmountable stone
wall or similar obstacle. Mr. Justice
| Wilder of the Supreme Court favors the
| Advertiser with a little pamphlet of
which both caption and text are here
| reproduced:
| With Compliments of Francis Wayland
ON CERTAIN ANOMALIES
| IN CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE
| A paper read in Detroit at the an
nual meeting of the National Prison As
| soclation, Monday evening, Oct. 10,
Yale Law School.
= AS L walked through the wilderness
| of this world, l lighted on certain
place where there was a" courtroom,
''and laid me down in that place to
sleep, and as [ slept, / dreamed a
| dream. - / dreamed, and behold, the
courtroom crowded with spectators, the
| Chief Justice of the highest tribunal of
| the country upon the bench. | looked
and saw man put upon his trial,
| charged with the crime of manslaugh-
ter in the first degree.' / learned that
the homicide had been committed about
two months before, in broad daylight,
in the busiest quarter of the most
| crowded thoroughfare of city of
nearly twenty thousand inhabitants;
| thasz@sit had been witnessed by many
persons, and that the local journals OF
the day, not less than five in number,
had given full particulars of the trans
action. 1t came also to my knowledge
still in my dream-that the deceased
and the man who had caused his death
were well known in the community, as
was the dissolute woman who was the
undisguised cause of the quarrel. l
gathered, moreover, that for the pre-
ceding thirty years no similar incident
had taken place in the city, and that,
naturally, it had been the engrossing
topic of conversation in all circles, from
its occurrence up to the very day of the
trial
Influenced by my home environ
ments, and taking into account the OBJ
vious intensity of public feeling on the
subject, [ saw every reason to antici-
pate that several days would be con-.
II,
deed, on further reflection, I began to
doubt whether twelve impartial men,
tested by any standard to which I had
been accustomed in my waking hours,
could, by any possibility, be found
within day s journey of the spot
where the homicide had been com
mitted. For 1 had discovered that, in
that country, every man eligible for
jury duty could read, and were there
not-as [ reminded myself-fve local
newspapers
Conceive, then, of my amazement
when | saw, still in my dream, jury
selected and empaneled in precisely
thirty-five minutes. Each juror had
been sworn and examined, and five had
been set aside; one having been reject
ed on peremptory challenge, two of hav-
ing so firm a belief in the prisoner 8
guilt that there was no reasonable prob
ability that it could be changed by any
evidence, and two for other sufficient
reasons
The state was represented by the At
torney General; the defendant by one
of the leaders of the bar, an ex-Attor- |
ney General
It appeared, from the opening state |
ment of the prosecuting officer, that, as |
the accused was passing the store in |
which the deceased was employed as
clerk, he was assaulted by the deceased, |
who followed him for some distance |
along the sidewalk, striking him two or
three blows with a slight pine stick or
wand, used in the store for measuring
cloth. Thereupon. the prisoner, turn !
ing upon his assailant, and quickly
drawing a pistol, but giving no warn
ing and making no demand that he
should desist, shot him twice, inflicting
wounds from which he died within an
hour
Then I saw in my dream that in less
than three hours from the swearing of
the first witness, the case for the gov
eminent was concluded. and this with
due deliberation in the marshaling or
evidence, and notwit hstanding careful
at all material points
Nor should it be overlooked that there
was much minute medical testimony,
given with that careful avoidance of
the simpler forms of narrative, and
that freedom from excessive condensa-
tion which frequently characterize the
liecinles of Galen when occupying the
witness stand.
And now / saw in my dream that, in
behalf of the accused, evidence was Of
fered tending to show that for some
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