MELBOURNE MURDER CASE

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 259, 7 November 1911, Page 3

MELBOURNE MURDER CASE

PEACOCK SENTENCED TO DEATH.

LAW QUESTIONS RESERVED

After lasting eight days the trial of Dr Samuel Peacock on a charge of having, on or about 22nd August last, murdered Mary Margaret Davies, spinster, "27 years of age, was concluded in the Melbourne Criminal Court on 24th October.

The jury, aftef being out four hours, brought In ii 'verdict of guilty. Mr Cussen said: I would ask for your Honor to state a case on tlie questions of law,'and to defer sen-^ tence until the hearing of a special case. The Chief Justice: No; the practice is to pass sentence first.. I will state a case on two questions—; first, whether or not there was evidence sufficient for the jury to find on the question whether the girl is ,dead, and, second, whether, if so, the prisoner is responsible for her death. Mr Cussen: those are the questions,\ whether there was a case for the jury. , The Chief Justice: Whether the evidence was sufficient to warrant their findings. Ido that because I see a little difference, which may be thought greater than •it appears to me as compared with the case in Queensland, the Murphy case, and the Makin case. For that reason I am willing to state a case, and suspend execution until the matter has been dealt with.

In passing sentence of death the Chief Justice said the prisoner had been found guilty of a particularly dangerous and heinous offence. He, proposed to state a case which might be possibly regarded as showing something which might avert the consequences of this verdict from him. He thought,, however, that there was nobody who had_ contemplated the case for some time who was not satisfied that he was guilty. The prisoner had prostituted the great profession he had practised to the vile and sordid destruction of young lives—a very audacious defiancel of the law. If it should appear to the courts hereafter, upon consideration of the technical aspects, of-this case, that the verdict should stand, he thought that the prisoner would do well not to look too earnestly for mercy. He did not know _ what would happen in that direction—it would rest with the Governor and his Ministers; but he thought that the indignation of the community they represented and expedience due for the protection of the community, and its young girls—and, indeed, not only its young girls, but its married women—would induce them to take a strong, resolute view of the prisoner's conduct, and of this sentence. His Honor then passed sentence of death.