AUCKLAND MURDER TRIAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 960, 28 February 1911, Page 3

AUCKLAND MURDER TRIAL.

ACCUSED SENTENCED TO DEATH.

JURY MAKES STRONG RECOMMENDATION TO MERCY.

Auckland, Feb. 27. The hearing of the charge of murder preferred against Alfred Albert Cash in connection with the Heleusville sensation on Christmas Day was continued at the Auckland Supreme Court today. Mr J. A. Tole, K.C., prosecuted, and Mr McVeagh defended accused.

In opening the case for the defence on Saturday evening Mr McVeagh had indicated that he would adduce evidence to prove a succession of incidents calculated to give prisoner’s intellectual powers a violent shock as well as to establish the fact that at the time the terrible crime was committed Cash was suffering from a mental disease that rendered him incapable of appreciating the value and quality of the act. Among the witnesses called to-day were several doctors whose views on the subject of the sanity or otherwise of the accused differed somewhat.

Counsel then addressed the jury, after which the judge summed up. His Honor told the jury that their verdict must be one of guilty of murder or one of not guilty on the ground of insanity. The law deemed everyone to be sane at the time of the commission of an act, and the question here, was whether or not the prisoner was insane when he killed his wife. If the jury found that the defence was established they were entitled to acquit on the ground of lunacy. They had to determine whether the degree of mental weakness which, according to the evidence of some of the witnesses and in the opinion of some of the medical men, commenced some time ago with the prisoner had advanced to such a degree that on December 25th there suddenly arose a mental condition which resulted in this act. If so, the prisoner was not responsible for that act, but a man charged with such a crime had to establish to the satisfaction of the jury that he was incapable of understanding the nature and quality of his act and that he committed it in a paroxysm of homicidal mania which deprived him of any mental power to appreciate the nature of his act. His Honor trusted the verdict the jury gave would satisfy their consciences.

The jury retired at 6.5 and at 9.50 returned to court with a verdict of guilty with a strong recommendation to mercy. The recommendation to mercy was given on the ground that the prisoner had received provocation.

When called upon to state whether he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon him the prisoner made no answer.

His Honour; “ Prisoner at the bar, the jury has found you guilty of the crime of murder with a strong recommendation to mercy. With that recommendation I entirely agree. I shall see that it is sent to the proper authorities. In the meantime (assuming the black cap) I have to order that you be taken to the place of execution and there be hanged by the neck till you are dead.” Cash turned round in a dazed kind of way and, assisted by the warders, walked slowly down the stairs. His sobs could be heard in court for some minutes after he had passed out of sight.