GUILTY, BUT FREE
A LUCKY PRISONER.
LONDON, October lb. Because the jury ignored the direction of the Recorder at Oxford, a prisoner who had been found guilty in a lower court on two serious indictments, left the dock free. In September the magistrates sentenced William Desmond, a bootmaker, to four months’ hard labour, on charges of assault and of being in possession of house-breaking implements. Afterwards they remembered that they had no jurisdiction in the latter offence, and therefore committed Desmond for trial. The Recorder was in a dilemma, and suggested that the jury should find that Desmond wan net convicted in the lower court. The jury decided that he had l>con convicted, and could not be tried twice for tho same offence. The Recorder said that his only course was to discharge Desmond. “You are a lucky man,” he added.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11663, 30 October 1923, Page 10
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141GUILTY, BUT FREE New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11663, 30 October 1923, Page 10
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