"UNWRITTEN LAW."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 7

"UNWRITTEN LAW."

JUDGE'S RULING.

MURDER CHARGE REDUCED.

MAN IN WIFE'S BEDROOM. Lord Aitchison, judge of the High Court in Glasgow, with a husband facing him from the dock, addressed a jury recently on circumstances which mav render killing no murder.

The husband, James Weir (tiliiioun, SJ» years old, of Duke Street, was accused of murdering a man he found in his wife's bedroom.

Said Lord Aitchison: "If you are satisfied that (iilmour found his wife in the act of misconduct, or in circumstances that reasonably conveyed to his mind that his wife had just committed misconduct, or was about to commit misconduct when discovered, you are entitled in the circumstances of the case to acquit him of murder, and to find him fruilty of culpable homicide. . . .

"The law is not just so blind as it isl sometimes thought to be, and if, in his) natural and projier passion, he took the man's life, then the law says it is open to a jury to find that he is not guilty of. murder, but of culpable homicide.

"It is also open to the jury to convict of assault where murder is alleged." The jury retired for half an hour. Then they reduced the charge to one of assault.

Lord Aitchison commented: "I think your verdict has done jrMiee," and passed sentence of six months' imprisonment.