JURY CRITICISED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 666, 19 October 1933, Page 3

JURY CRITICISED

JUDGE SAYS HAD NO REASON FOR NOT REACHING AN AGREEMENT. BOMBSHELL IN COURT. Judge T. A. Wlells, the newly-ap-pointed Supreme Court judge for the Northern Territory, dropped a bombshell in court to-day, when he told a jury that had been locked up for 12 hours without reaching agreement | in a murder trial that he was not j satisfied. that they had reasonable j cause for disagreeing. ' I He threatened to lock them up until Monday morning and added: "If you do not reach an agreement by Monday I cannot give you any indieation of what will happen even then." The jury then retired again, and for many minutes their voices could be heard in angry argument. Judge Wells solemnly warned the jury that it was their duty to reach a decision irrespective of their personal beliefs, and reminded them that he had power to detain them indefinitely as long as he was satisfied that there was reasonable cause for disagreement on the facts. ( The ca.se was that of two Mary I River aborigines. Dick Koora Poonie was charged wtih having murdered James Nicholls, 56, a dingo trapper, at Mairioru station on May 4, 1933, and Bobby Cush Mom M.om was char- | iged with having been an accessory beI fore the fact. Justification Plea. In his address Mr. W. J. P. Fitzgerald (for the defence) said the Crown case rested on, the evidence of four gins, all of whom contradicted one another in details. If, however, the jury was satisfied that there had' been a killing becanse Nicholls had ill-treated the natives, taken one of their gins, fired at them to keep them away from his camp, and threatened to shoot them on other occasions. He did not put Dick and Bobby in the box, claiming that the Crown had not proved its case. This fact was commented on by Judge Wells in his summing up. Ihe jury was entitled to draw significant conclusions, he said. The jury returned at 11.45 a.m. with a verdict of guilty against Dick and not guilty against Bobby. Judge Wells then pronounced sentence of death on Dick.