Year: 1872

further opportunities occur for like slaughters.
Closing Scenes I'm tho Fisk Murder
Trial-summing UP ON Both Sides.
The interest which attaches to the summing
up of counsel for the defence in great mur-
der trial is one which usually attracts the at
tention of higher order Of intellect than that
which gapes after and bolts without mastication
the evidence that comes forth In the progress
of the case. The nineteenth day of the Stokes
trial was marked by careful, able, earnest,
yet unimpassioned address to the jury on be-
half of the prisoner. 1t may be admitted that
there Is greater necessity for q dis
play of legal talent by the defence,
in case such as the present, than
by the prosecution. The prosecution must
rely solely upon its theory being proved by its
facts or evidence of facts, while the prisoner
has right, not only to the weight of his
counter evidence Of facts, but also to be
credited with the gaps in the evidence Of the
prosecutors Many prisoner has been dis
charged on the dearth of evidence to convict


To appreciate every hiatus in the prosecutors
chain of evidence and apply them with GER
tainty to strengthen his own case,
demands in complicated trial cool head,
a clear delivery and nice Judgment
These attributes were doubtless present yester-
day in the person of Mr.. Tremain, and it be-
comes certainty that, whether Stokes be con-
victed or not, his defence has been ably con-
Quoted throughout. He first applied himself
to the question of the. medical treatment of
Fisk after he received the wound, his exordium
having occupied the close of the day before. The
unseemly scenes between the doctors on the
stand gave him ground on which he rapidly
enlarged, and brought forward skilfully the
caucusing of the doctors after the fatal result.
He charged that the most skilful among the
medical men for the prosecution made up his
mind that death resulted from shock, be-
cause no other cause was apparent to him,
and not from the usual evidences of
fatality from such cause The alleged igno-
rant use Of the probe he did not lay very heavy
stress on; but the administration of inordinate
doses Of opium by the mouth and hypoderni-
cally he strongly contended would leave at the
worst an irremovable doubt upon the minds of
the jury whether Fisk's death was from narcot-
ic poison or from the wound But what called
forth his most earnest comment was the
question Of premeditation. He pointed out
that evidence to this end rested between two
gamblers and hall boy. The first saw
Stokes look out Of his coupe passing the
Grand Opera House, in which, as he observed,
Fisk was not at the time. The second saw
Stokes enter the hotel hastily, followed
shortly afterwards by Fisk. The third, the
hall boy, he handled severely, both as to an
alleged corruption by the prosecution and un-
truthfulness of statement on the prisoner po-
sition OF the time of the deed. This he con-
trasted with the continuity of the evidence
for the defence, accounting for his visit to the
hotel as the result Of can innocent purpose"
The credibility Of the prisoner as witness for
himself he strongly pleaded for, and the con-
fused statement of certain witnesses for the
prosecution as to the identity of the pistol or
whether there were really two pistols, he ad-
duced as supporting Stokes testimony. The
evidence Of the ''woman in the case'' who
gave the warning to Stokes, and that which
referred to his being dogged by emissaries of
Fisk, were brought forward to show the
animus which might lead to hostilities be-
tween them at their first rencontre The
character Of the deceased he was unsparing of;
and although his whole discourse was con-
sonant in tone throughout, it seemed to
lack in the emotional parts the force
which many a pleader would have
thrown literally into it. His appeals, in fine,
to the jury were for verdict of justifable
homicide or manslaughter in the third or
fourth degree, as set forward in the ten points
given to the jury on the day previous.


The District Attorney Immediately CON-
menced summing up for the prosecution, and
although it was late in the day plunged at once
in medias res. His style was forid compared
with the impassiveness of the counsel on the
other side. There was little force in his OPEN
ing, to the effect that the deceased was not
there to say what killed him. AS he went on,
however, he grappled more effectively with the
points of the defence. On the probing and
medical treatment he contented himself with
the statement on the evidence that the wound
was fatal in any case. On the premeditation
theory his summing up seemed to depend for
its evidence Of lying in wait on the hall boys
testimony, which is really the backbone
of the prosecution. 1t would not be fair
to judge the charge Of the prosecution by the
limited remarks of the District Attorney, who
will resume at length to-day. To-day also
there is very little doubt the jury will be
charged by the Court. Amid so much legal
ENHANCEMENT there is every necessity
for a broad, impartial charge which
will leave nothing but the evidence in
the case before the jury and that in its entirety.
The verdict which has been rendered by
partisans of one side or the other for months