A Convict Pardoned.
The Times, 1824-09-23T00:00:00

Great surprise has been excited at the circumstance of a prisoner of the name of James Thomais Boyce, who was convicted and re- ceived sentence of deatlh at the Old Bailey in the June HstSions, hav- ing since been liberated upon His Majesty's free pardon-his offbnce being of a most atrocious nature, and without a single feature in the cawS at all favourable to the prisoner. IIis friends are respectable, and to the great interest used by then in his behalf. his escape was supposed to be attTibutable. It now, hiowever, appears that the par- don was the necessary result of the singular verdict of the jury who tnied him, which, inoeed, at the time attractcrl some public notice. Boyce was foodt with another man who made his escape, in the little ftshmonge^,it stied whiclh adjoins the shop of Mr. IM orris, thc linendraper at the southl-end of Fleet-nmarket, between four and five o'clock in the morning, attempting to break through into Alr. 'Mor- ria's shop, proofs of whllichl were apparent onl the partition-wall. islburr., a watchman of St-t Bride's parish, in trying the tdoors be, fore he left duty, found this of the fishmonger's openl, and on going in, tire door was shut so as to keep him there, and Boyce imme. diately attacked him: with an ironl crow, and struck hirn withl great siolence several times over the hlead. Thle watchman called otit for xnercy, begging he wvould not kill him. Boyce then bid him sit dowiu on the block at the farther er.d of the shec, threatening if he ofiered to stir from it he would do for him. Flavin, thus got a fair start of the whole length of the shed, he opened the door an(d ran off. Fishbu rn, although so severely wounded as to he obliged subsequentl to be tak3en to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. followed all bleeding a,s be was, gave an alatm, and B9ye was ultimately stopped and se- cured by some other watchme i Shoe-lane. Ile was accordlingly irdicted under lord Ehieuborough'a Act fbr the violence committed on the watchman, the prosecution being carried on at the expense of t Bride's parish. The facts above stated were given in evider,ce by Fishhurn, atd the jury returned a verdict of" Guil/y, -ith intent to e?ffcI his cscope. The words of Lord Elletiborough's Act are-" ulnlawfully stab, ar cat, &e., with intent to irurder, or to rob, or to maim, disfigure or rlisable, or to do somne other grievous bodily harm." The pri- toeler's solicitor suggested at the time that this verdict amoulnted to an acqnittal under the indictment.tltat the stabbing or cutting, to create the offence under the act) must be found to be with the jotent stated in the statute-that the intent found by the jury vras niot so stated, and consequently that cutting or stabbing, with an intent to etfect an escape, was not an offence under that act, nor laid as suctI in the indictment against the prisoner. The Comsxox SERGEANT, who tried the case, reserved the poinlt, and the prisoner, in consequence, was not included in the Recorder's lasi report of the convicts under sentence of death. The question has been subsequently under the consideration of the Judges, and the objection ol the prisoner'ssolicitor decided to be geod. The de- csion, however, came too late to arrest jutdgment, sentence ol death having been already passed upon Boyce, and a pardon under the sign manllal was the consequenct-. . There is reason to hope that this unlooked.for e-cape has prorluced its proper effrct upon the mind of Boyce. He has, lye learn, separated himself from his obemer bad associates, and is aow in reputab2e em- ployment. A CONVICT PARDONEDI.