SUPREME COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 96, 22 April 1873, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

[Before His Honor Mr Justice Richmond] V ESTERDAY. Mary Ann Woodward- was found guilty of manslaughter, but sentence was deferred in order that the case might be referred to the Court of Appeal. This Day. Charles Ambler was indicted for attempting to commit suicide by cutting his throat in March last. Prisoner pleaded guilty, but said that he did not at the time know what he was doing. The Judge said that this must be recorded as a plea of not guilty. If lie really did not know what he was about, he had not been guilty of an offence ; but it must be for the jury to Eay what was his state of mind at the time. .:. William S-malley stated that the prisoner, who lived in a whare close to his own near Collingwood, came to him on the evening of the 14th March, and said he was afraid of being alone. He had been drinking for some days, and. was trembling all over. He staid for a couple of hours without speaking or appearing to notice anything Witness then took him home and left him in bed. He went down again next morning with some tea for him, and found him lying in bed on his back and a pool of blood on the ground. Assistance was obtained, and a wound found in prisoner's throat^was sewn up and he given in charge. John Fisher, the district constable, said that having been sent for he went to prisoner's hut and found him in the state described by the former witness. He was in a terrible state of mind at the time, and said he was pursued by a number of blue devils. Ec frequently was drunk for weeks together. This closed the case for the prosecution. Prison* r being asked if he wished to address the jury said that he knew nothing of what he had done. Be was an old man and he hoped they would be merciful to him. His Honor, in summing up, said that if the jury were satisfied that the prisoner's mind was so deranged at the time of his committing the act that he waa unconscious of what he was doin?, it would be their duty to acquit him. He wished that it was in his power, even if a verdict of not guilty were returned, to commit him to a hospital for inebriates, where there would be some chance of his being reformed, and where his grey hairs might possibly go down in peace to tbe grave, instead of his .being turned out on the world again to be a nuisance to himself and to society. The jury, after retiring for a few .minutes, found a verdict of Not Guilty. Hi 9 Honor said : Charles Ambler, as the jury have found that you did not know what you were about at the time of your attempt to commit suicide, tbey have acquitted you. I hope that you may never appear before me again on a similar charge, and am only sorry, as I said before, that I have not the power to send you where you might be weaned from the wretched habits to which you are a slave. lam afraid that no advice of mine to a man of your years would be of any avail, still there is a chance that the wretchedness, you have experienced may warn you for the future not to put an enemy into your mouth to steal away your brains. CAXVLB STEALING. ■ > William Burkett was indicted for stealing, on the 21st March last, one cow and one heifer, the property of Thomas Clarkson, of Motueka ; another count charged the prisoner with receiving the same. The prisoner was committed for trial by Messrs. Jellicoeand Parker of Motueka. Mr. H. Adams prosecuted, and Mr. Fell defended. The evidence in this ' case was very lengthy and most uninteresting to the public. After retiring for a few minutes the jury returned with a -verdict of Not Guilty. In discharging the prisoner his Honor said that he hoped the undoubted peril he hud been in would make him more careful for the future in his dealings with cattle in the country. This concluded the sittings of the Court.