The Pontypridd District Herald and Rhondda Valley, Llantrisant, Caerphilly, and Mountain Ash News. — 1892-04-30 (Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

THE MURDER MYSTERY.  DEEMING'S TRIAL  The Criminal Court at Melbourne was densely crowded ,on Friday, when the trial of the case against Deeming for the Windsor murder was called on. The prisoner was placed in the dock, and unhesitatingly pleaded "Not guilty." Mr. Deakin, the prisoner's leading counsel, then rose and applied for a postponement of the trial, the priacipal ground alleged for the adjournment being that the present state of public feeling precluded a fair and impartial trial. The Press had already, it was pointed out, assumed the prisoner's guilt, not only in relation co the particular crime with which he was charged, but of other singularly shocking murders in various parts of the world. The abuse and execration heaped upon him in the newspapers could not but unfavourably affect the public mind, and must render it next to impossible for a jury to be got together who would weigh the evidence placed before them in an unbiased spirit. The time given for the preparation of the prisoner's defence had been altogether too short, as it was necessary to make searching inquiries into the mental condition of the accused. Mr. Justice Hodges, who is trying the case, pointed out that there was no question that at the present moment the mental condition of the prisoner was sound. Mr. Deakin dwelt upon the difficulty whick the solicitor for the defence had expel ienced in eliciting from the accused the names of persons acquainted with his previous career, and who could speak to the question of his sanity from personal knowledge. His main point, however, was that the Press had criticised and prejudged the case in a manner never hitherto paralleled in the criminal annals of Victoria. The judge said that the papers as a ru!e in cases of murder tried to present all the details relating to the crime in the most sensational form. The more disgusting and horrifying the circumstances were, the more anxious they were to get possession of the facts, and to present them in the most startling form. This tendency on the part of the newspaper Press was, however, a wholly insufficient reason why a postponement of the trial should be granted. In fact it was the fundamental policy of the law that punishment should follow as quickly as possible after the commission of a crime and the guilt of the culprit had been proved. The judge then stated that he would consent to postpone the trial till Thursday, the 28th inst., but no longer. Not the slightest suggestion had been made that any person capable of giving evidence of a vital nature in the prisoner's interest was to be found in England cr elsewhere. The proceedings were then adjourned till Thursday. Several affidavits have been sworn in support of the application which is to be made on Thursday for a further postponement of the trial of Deeming for the Windsor murder. Two doctors who have examined the prisoner give it as their opinion that there is ample ground for further inquiry into the prisoner's mental condition. Mr. Marshall Lyle, the solicitor for the defence, has sworn that Deeming has suffered from fits since his incarceration in Melbourne Gaol, and that there is prima acie evidence of hereditary insanity in the prisoner's family.