THE DOUGLAS HOTEL TRAGEDY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 8350, 8 December 1892, Page 6

THE DOUGLAS HOTEL TRAGEDY.

■■i at A 9 bearing upon the committal of George B. J. Cooper,.of Manchester, on a charge of murdering his wife in the Regent Hotel, Douglas, the following information regarding procedure in Manx criminal courts will be read with interest. In Manx, as in English law, murder is a crime punishable by death. A person committed by a magistrate ,in the island on a charge of wilful murder is, subsequent to his committal, brought before a Court of Criminal Inquiry. The judge in this court is one of the two deemsters or doomsters. A jury of six is empanelled from the list of jurors for the sheading in which the alleged crime was committed, and io is the duty of this jury, after hearing witnesses, the advocates for the prosecution and defence, aad the judge's summiug up, to say whether on the evidence the prisoner should be put upon his trial for murder. If they find to that effect, the prisoner is. committed to take his trial at the Court of General Gaol Delivery. The jury may, if they think fit, send a prisoner charged with wilful murder for trial upon the lesser charge of manslaughter, or they may acquit him entirely. The Court of General Gaol Delivery I-heldhalf-yearly.inMayandNovember. It is presided over by theLieutenant-Governer of the island, the other judges being the two deemsters and the Clerk of the Rolls, To it are summoned 72 jurors—l 2 from each of the six sheadings into which the island is divided. In the case of a trial for either manslaughter or murder, 12 jurors out of the 72 are selected by ballot to try the cause. The prisoner, either through his advocate or personally, if he be without legal assistance, may challenge any juror balloted, and such challenges art* always heard, and the challenged juror ordered to stand aside. This privilege in always, taken advantage of to a large extent, as the resident population is but small, and the prisoners and advocates have usually"a very shrewd idea as to those'jurors who are mercifully or unmercifully inclined. In trials of all criminal offences the Manx law differs from the English is that prisoners, may give evidence in their own defence. Of course, they are subject, should they give evidence, to cross-examination. The gaol delivery jury, in the event of the trial being for murder, may find a verdict of guilty or not guilty, or of guilty of manslaughter in some degree. Sentence is E renounced by the first deemster, or, in in absence, by the second deemster. When a sentence o£ death Is pronounced, the judge complies with English custom in previously assuming the black cap. The last sentence of death in the island was S renounced just twenty years ago. The lanx Attorney-General prosecutes on behalf of the crown in criminal cases. Mr G. A. Ring and Mr T. Kneen. leading Manx advocates,'bave been retained for

Cooper's defence.