SUPREME COURT—TRIAL FOR MURDER.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 86, 8 April 1852, Page 3

SUPREME COURT —TRIAL FOR MURDER.

At the last Session of the Superme Court, William Bowden, at present under sentence of death in Auckland Gaol, was arraigned of the murder of John Dixon, a blacksmith, and formerly a soldier in the sSih Regiment. The facts connected wiih this ease will lie- found in the following summary of the evidence eliiiled by the Attorney-General as prosecutor for ihe Crown. Isaac Graham, (who pave his testimony in a reluctant and unsatisfactory manner, and ■who was repeatedly cautioned both by Ihe Attorney-General and Chief Justice) having been duly sworn, slated: —I keep a boanl'iig house in Shortlaud-street, nearly opposite the Exchange Hotel ; I know the prisoner at the bar; I Ilil " VaH n» e » l< '"' s Laml> he was a prisoner of the Crown when I knew "him ; I knew the deceased John Dixon j both men met ill my house on Monday evening last ; that evening 1 went to the Exchange Tap; William Uowden was tlier* ; it was about a quarter past nine; William liowden followed me home; the deceased l ixou asked him to sing a song ; he said, l.ow il.ire yon speak to me like that; tliey had a few words, and lliey went out inlo the street ; I did not Inar anything said about a former quairel, and making it up. (Were you examined before the Inquest ?) yes —(a'ter much difficulty, and being repeatedly cautioned by the AttorneyGeneral) —ihe witness stated. —I think I lieaid a little more about making it up. Afterwards Dixon asked the piiso ß, ;r, what am I a scoundrel for"? Dixon said, 'f we owe one another any animosity we wil' make it up; they had a few more words, which I do not rccolle.t, and went out of doors ; I recollect about a month ago there was a bit of a noise in our place j I heard the prisoner tell Dixon he would have his revenue of Dixon ; when j they were having a few words, I heard the | prisoner say, he would have his revenge some | of lliese times. (The Altorney-Ger.eral agai ll j cautioned the witness as' to his evidence.). About six months ago I saw Dixon and ihe prisoner lighting in the street, for about a quarter of an hour; 1 did not stop at the window till it was finished ; they had a few words after they gol washed ; the prisoner said he would put it iu for him sume time oi oilier; I s.w Dixon about five minutes after they went out, come inlo the house again j Dixon said, I am stabbed, and ran through the house ; the prisoner was near enough to hear; he said, lkey had slabbed him ; I knew he meant the prisoner, as he went by that name j the prisoner followed hi in in; we told ihe prisoner

lie had stabbed the man; he went out and looked at him ; ho s iid, he is not slabbed ; lie has broken a blood vessel ; I was along with Dixon till he died; he died about twenty minuter to 11 o'clock; the prisoner had had a little drink, hut not much ; I saw no knife on (lie prisoner ; I saw* nothing in his hand; I might Inve seen it if he had had one; if it had been shut I could not have seen it. Jiy the Court.—He said he would have his revenge on him some lime or other, when the decea-ed offered to make the matter up; I never heard the piisoner ofler to make it up; it was Dixon who said it. William Rennet, being sworn, said—l am a j labourer, and live in Kelly's Bay ; I recollect last Monday evening; I saw the prisoner and Dixon come out of Gralnm's house, in Short-land-street, about half-past 9 ; they were folj lowed by a man named Keen ; Dixon said, I come and stand before me ; they then began I fighting in the road ; they fought a very few i minutes; they appeared to be exchanging j blows; Dixon told the prisoner at the bar to take lhe knife away from his side; the pri- ; .soner denied having a knife, and put his hands on his >ide ; I believe there were no words nor blows after thai ; I next heard the deceased after he spoke cry out 1 I'm stabbed; 'it was about a minute about the knife; deceased put his left hand on hisside, and ran into Graham's house; I followed the deceased and the prisoner into Graham's house ; I saw Dixon in the yard, he lay on his back, bleeding from the body, I could see by his shirt ; I told the people to send for the police, and for a doctor ; I went into the house, and asked the prisoner if he had anything in his possession ; he said he had only money and tobacco; I told the prisoner he had blabbed Dixon ; prisoner made uo answer ; the police came, and soon after he was apprehended , I knew the prisoner in Van Diemeu's Land; he is a carpenter; he was a prisoner of the Crown; Dixon might have been thinking, but they were both sober. Mr. Ilardinglon, landlord of the Exchange Hotel, proved having seen the men sparring in the .street; heard no blow Miuck ; saw the deceased run into Graham's hous •, exclaiming that he was stabbed. James Keen was then sworn and said *.—I am a mariner, boarding at Mr. Graham's house at preient ; on Monday evening, between fc> and U, I went into the Exchange tap to have a glass of half-anddialf ; two or three minutes after the prisoner c ame in he had a glass of half-and-half; he was not drunk or sober; he could walk very well after that v.e came out, and Giaham was standing at the bar in the lap, the prisoner took hold of Giaham, and said he shiuld have a glass with him ; he at first refused..but afleiwavJs went back with th.* prisoner ; the prisoner viid lie would come over to the house; Graham said, he was nol wanted there; the prisoner then came over to we went in ; Dixon was singing;, sort-* when 1 first went in, afterwards he was sunding with his hack to the kitchen lire, the prisoner came into (he k tchen ; Dixon spoke to,the piisoner. the prisoner answered, ' get out, you wretch, don't speak to me Dixon said, * why?' the prisoner said, * for the injury you have done me Dixon replied, * instead of my doing you an injury, you have done me one ut that they had a few angry words in the kitchen ; thay then wenl out into the middle of the Crescent; [ followed them out ; they went into the middle of the road, and began lighting ; the prison, r struck three or four blows at Dixon ; I could not see if Dixon struck the prisoner; he male as if to strike him; Dixon s;tid, *Oh I you have got a knife;' the prisoner made answer, * Oh ! look at him, hear him, how he is ta king, he put his hand towards his jacket pocket; they had another scuftle after I that, when Dixon put his hand to his breast and said,' Oh, my God, lam stabbed !' lie then ran into Graham's house ; after that I went into the house ; the prisoner followed me into the house ; I heard Dixon sing out in the back yard, he said,' Oh, my God, lam a done min !' [ got a li^ln a and went out to him ; 1 found him ail of a gore of blood in hisshiit; 1 did not then go within two yards of him ; in returning back the prisoner was at the backdoor; prisoner said, ' where is he?' I made answer, you keep away from him, you have done quite enough ; lli going up the steps he gave me a shove back ituo the yard, and followed me into the yard. He saw Dixon bleeding, and said, ' Oli, d—n him ! he's only broken a blood-ves-sel, and turned into the kitchen ; with that we picked Dixon up, and put him on a b d. £>aw prisoner about 10 in the morning that day (Mondat) ; 1 was at the c;irl stand, bottom oi Crescent ; lie e.ime and spjke tome; I asked him if he had a pipe of tobacco on hiip; he pulled tobacco and knife out of Ins pocket, and gave them to me; I lilicd my pipe and returned theiu back ajain,

Knife produced.—Would not like to swear to it, linl :t was a knife very much like iV.t. Py the CV.nrt.— Dixon speke to isun r, asked .'lint how l.e was gelling on ; wit'.in luce yards, mhl saw llti" prioner ar.ti iltciaf i lighting j coulil si e the Mow* strr.ik ; c- aid see nothing in 111'' prisoner's hand; ji.'i.>cr iliil lint fay whether he liail a knife or not, hut saiii,' look at liini, hear how lie's talking ; he, piisoiier, put his hand to his jacket pocket; did not see any knife in prisoner's hand when he returned to the kitchen ; the knife lent hail a piece out of the handle and the small hladc broken, the same as that produced ; wou'd not swear to the knife, hut it was vciy like it. It was not possible for any other person to have stabbed deceased. James porter, a private in the Auckland Police, apprehended the prisoner. There was no appearance of blood on his hands, and only a small streak and a spot of blood on his shiit. Catherine Ilarkins, proved to having picked up the knife produced in conit, in the yard of her father's house, which is but a short distance from Graham's. The knife might have been easily thrown from one house to the other. Kichard Matthews sworn.—l am a surgeon juactisinj; iu Auckland ; I was in attendance 011 deceased, John Dixon, on Monday night, a few minutes after 10; he appeared to he sinking then fioin loss of blood ; there went four wounds upon the body, they were not bleeding when I was present ; two were over the region of the heart, and two on the right side, one about ihe centre of the right side, the oilier below the inferior margin of the liver ; four deep wounds in all; the skin was divided ill three places to the extent of about three inches, caused, 1 believe, by the point of the weapon being turned aside ; the weapon must have been a narrow-bladed one; the knife produced would cause similar wounds; dec.-an-d died shortly after 11; the following morning 1 assisted in making post i.ioi tern examination ; found the two wounds in the left side had penetrated between the third and fouith ribs, one entering the cavity of the heart, the other wounding one of the principal blood-vessel?, about a quarter of an inch from the heait; the superior wound on the right side, passed between the third and fourth ribs, through the interior lobe of the lungs ; the lower wound passed through the wall of the abdomen, the intestines escaped uninjured; the wound in the heart, or that in the artery near the heart, must have inevitably caused death ; had no doubt that deceased died of one of those wounds.

AValler l.ee, Surgeon, corroborated the statements of Mr. Matthews, \vitli respect to tl.e position of (lie wounds; either of the two would have been sufficient to produce death. This closed the case for the prosecution. The prisoner, in his defence, put in a long and outrageously-written statement, not der.ying that he had killed the unfortunate deceased, hut urging the court and jury to lelieve that he must, have lieeu insane in doing so. 'file Attorney General said, Ik; should lot detain the Jury t.y any lengthened observations on the case tief.ne them. The evidence was sufficiently diiect to Un.il ihein to a just decision. Mauslaying resolved itself into different degrees of criim\ Gross and unreasonable provocation, under the influence of which, and whilst in a state of momentary piireni'.y, one man was led to deprive another of lit"•, the law lecognized as manslaughter Jiut who e life was taken, even without an apparent motive, the law imputed malice to the manslayer ; lor were it not so, any assassin might say, Tine. I have slabbed mv victim to the heart, or I have shot him through the head, hut you must prove that I cn'ertaiued malice towards him before you can find me guilty of murder." 'if this were to he admitted, we might /iud av:i isiins assuming to stand up in a fair, manly light, and under that fa'se cover slaughtering tiu-ir victims. If the testimony which he (the At-torney-General) had pl.iet-d before them, and which was altogether unimpeachable, was believed, there could he feh .juviuci d, he no difficulty in determining their verdict, lie did not seek to lay down the law to the Jury ; that would be done by ihe Comt. If the Jury hail any doubt of malice on the part of the prisoner, they would give him the benefit of lliat doubt. If, on the other hand, they were convinced that the deceased had been killed premeuitaiedly ami of malice aforethought, they "nuhl not tail to do their duty to sucicty by bunging in a verdict accordingly. The C liief Justice, after commenting on the e\ider.ee as to the circumsiances connected with the death of Dixon said, — If the evidence was believed, it left 110 doubt that the killing was the acl of the prisoner ; theieupon arose the momentous question, was that killing murder or manslaughter '! Was the p isoner eartied ,-uiay by o:;!y 1.-.-it of blood and vi"l"iit UMvtl'.cti'ig passion '? Was there enough in

tlie combat itself, such as they liail heard it de- ! sc.ibed. to account for and furnish an excuse for such deadly ferocity as the nature of llic wounds showed to have existed ? Or, did the prisoner shed the blood of the deceased in a spirit of cool and self-collected malice, and ivilll a settled purpose to destroy the life of the deceased 1 ? The Jury would carefully consider Ihe whole of the evidence. The main circumstances were tlie-e: On the one hand, there was evidence that the coin hat was ptoposed by the deceased, ami the knife was at hand alieady ill the prisoner's possession, nut provided by him for the purpose, or fetched by him from any other place. On the other hand, there was distinct evidence of an old grudge against the deceased, and of words threatening revenge useil by the prisoner. Great ca'ution was to be used in estimating the weight to be given to words spoken a mouth at least before, the evidence not showing the tone or manner, or any of the accompanying circumstances. Then, there was the use of a weapon likely to produce death, and, what was even more the use of that weapon iu an unfair way against an adverse combatant, uho was using his lists only. There was the evasive denial by the prisoner of t fie use of any such weapon the suggestion that the deceased had broken a blood-vessel—and there was the getiiii.r rid of the weapon—though at ihe precise time at which it was got lid of there was no clear evidence. It was the duty of the Jury to say, whether, taking all the circumstances of the case together, they thought that this frightful crime could fairly be recounted for by violent passion and excitement, arising outj of the heat of the combat itself, and overpowerin" for a time the icason of the prisoner : Or whether they saw in that crime an exercise of reason and design, a settled and self-possessed spirit of malice, acting under cover of that combat, and taking advantage of it for a deadly purpose. The Jury then retired, and after an absence of rather more than an hour, returned into the Court with a verdict of Ouilh/, but recommended the prisoner to mercy, without st.tmg any reason for such recommendation. The following mornin-.r, the Chief Justice pronounced sentence of death, intimating tint the recommendation of the Jury to mercy should be laid before the Government. The condemned is at present awaiting the return of I lis Ivxcellency Ihe Governor to ascertain what the effect of that recommendation may be.