ADVICE TO JURY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 142, 17 June 1936, Page 8

ADVICE TO JURY.

HIS HONOR'S WORDS. PROOF BEYOND DOUBT. % search: for the truth. "We are all human," said his Honor, in opening his summing-up address to thc-jury, "and whatever efforts we lliake we are liable to err in handling the great amount of material in this case. If at any time I should misstate anything, it is your right and it is your duty to help to correct me." The prisoner, said his Honor, had been brought before the jury by the prosecution on the charge of murder, and it was for the prosecution to satisfy them beyond doubt that the charge had been proved. "We arc all human beings. I take it that all of us desire" earnestly, passionately perhaps, to feel wo know the truth of the happenings," added his Honor. His Honor detailed to the jury "the onus of proof," and went 011 to advise them that no jury should ever look for doubt. Criminal trials were not like sums in arithmetic. The jury would approach the matter with the same earnestness and degree of care as though their own lives depended 011 the right answer. They would endeavour to banish sympathy and emotion to any of the parties, dead or living. Hut 110. one should shrink from saying "I am not convinced, although you others are." If it was by mere coincidences that the final decision was arrived at, then they would have to be remarkable coincidences. His Honor urged the jury to banish from their minds any preconceived ideas, anything they had read, heard or thought about the case. They were not to waste time trying to speculate on what his Honor thought, because it was not his duty to maTce up his mind, but to see, that Mareo had a fair trial. The whole ease had to be tried to the jury's satisfaction 011 the evidence at this trial, just as though Mareo had never had a trial before. Tho lunchcon adjournment was then' taken.