FAMOUS COURT DRAMAS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5221, 30 December 1927, Page 1

FAMOUS COURT DRAMAS.

BUSHRANGEBS LN DOCK . A PLEA FOR DEATH. The central criminal, court at Darn linghurst, set in the very middle of the main block of buildings facing from its gardens on the busy intersectim, is the stage on which have been set the most dramatic scenes in the administration of justice in New South Wales. Eere have taken place all the murder trials for two generations. Some of the last of the bushrangers of the roaring days faced the judge through the then bars ofl the dock. Those spikes are gone now this ten years or more. Tliq barbed spear heads of the iron bars that top the wooden panelling of the 'place, wher® the prisoners sit, have been sawn off. leaving only a plain railing* Through theise bars, a long succession of prisoners have wctched. with varying degrees of pass’vity theirfate fought out in the arena, and many have heard the dread words that have spelled their doom. Last to pass down the : teps to meet the extreme penalty of the law at Long Bay Gaol was Simpson, the Appin murderer. him, Williams, the killer of his three children in excess of- poverty and hopelessness pleaded in one, of the, strangest and ■most sensational scenes eVer enacted in the Court, for the right t.o follow his little ones through the gates of death. lOne of the grimmest chapters in the long storv of crime and punisn-, meni; that belongs within the high walls of the big, dark-panelled courtroom, that of the Mount Rennie trial, when four youths went to the gallows, w»as enacted, when the bench was occupied by the late Mr Justice Windeyer, the father of Mr R. Win-deye-r, K.C., who led the defence of the Higgs brothers. Among the famous trials of the old days those of Grand and Jones, for, the murder of ;a constable at Auburn, and that cf Butler, thq mountain murderer who lured his victims on prospecting expeditions, and made graves of the diggings they worked at, were outstanding. LIFE SENTENCES. Murder trials of more recent years in which life imprisonment has been the penalty have been those of Mis Mort for the killing of Dr Tozer; Speechley, for the killing of Constable Wolgast; MacPherson, for the killing of a girl at Petersham ; Aves, for the murder of a woman at Redfern ; Oakes, for the murder of a girl; and Buckley, the Newcastle murderer. One of the strangest cases ofl recent years was that of Eugenie Faleeni, the woman who posed as a man and who actually went through thq form of marriage with a woman whom she was afterwards accused of murdering. She was sentenced tp imprisonment for life. The members of the jury empanelled in the Higgs casei have been in charge of the. officers since Monday morning. They are fed and housed at the courthouse, sleeping in a comfortable dormitory and taking their meals together in a spacious dining room. Once it was obligatory on the judge to keep the jurymen within the court precincts until the conclusion of all criminal cases To avoid keeping them overnight late sittings of courts were frequent in the old days. Now, however, only in murder trials pr in the cases of persons charged with treason or other offence involving capital punishment, it is compulsory for the jury to be kept until they have discharged their duties. In other criminal cases the judges are able to use their discretion as to whether they should let the jury go home each night. In some long drawn-out cases juries have been shut up for more than a week. In the famous Dean conspiracy case ,heard at Darlinghurst years ago, the jury was locked up for 28 days. This is the record for New South Wales. Starting at 9s a day, the pay of the jurymen serving on a trial increases to 12s a day after the third day. After this they have the right to apply to the judge for an increase in in which case the matter is referred to the Justice Department for decision. All jurymen who are summoned are paid for their attendance whether they servp on a trial or pot. . Those of the 96 summoned on Monday for the Higgs- trial who were not selected each received 5s for the half-day that they spent away from their ordinary avocations. £5OOO IN FEES. The jury system is expensive for the State. As much as £5OOO a year is paid away in foes to jurymen at Darlinghurst in a year. Apart from the necessary severance firom the ordinary life of the community involved in being locked up on a long trial the enforced stay is made as easy as possible. The jurymen are taken for car rides by the sheirff’s, officers every evening and ■morning. Any message,', that they wish to send are attended to, and any articles they wish for are obtained. At present one of the old dormitories at Darlinghurst is being en-> larged to make the accommodation for “twelve good men and true” still more comfortable.