TRIAL OF MUNN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 25 June 1930, Page 5

TRIAL OF MUNN.

ADMISSIBILITY OF EVIDENCE.

MATTER FOR APPEAL COURT.

(By Telegraph —'Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday.

The Coun, of Appeal this afternoon heard argument of counsel on the question of the admissibility of certain evidence taken during the Munn murder trial. At the conclusion of the trial Munn was .found guilty and sentenced to death. In pursuance of the objections taken by counsel, a case stated was prepared by Mr Justice Herdman, asking for the opinion of the Court of Appeal on the following questions: (1) Was l the evidence of the children proprly admitted; (2) was a passage in the. depositions of Mary Jane Brown properly excluded. Mr Northeroft (for Munn) submitted that the evidence of the children as to Munn’s disposition towards his wife was not of any settled mental state but merely of Munn’s behaviour under certain conditions. He submitted that the evidence was too remote in point of time to be evidence of malice and was not accompanied by any declarations which would tend to prove Munn guilty of murder. The evidence of the children amounted to no more than evidence of a succession of domestic conllicts. If the Crown could have proved cruelty to the wife right up to the time of her death, ttferc would have been a logical association with the al- • leged crime, but where a long period of time intervened there was a distinct lack of association, which rendered the evidence irrelevant.

Mr Fair, for the Crown, said the evidence of the type admitted had been accepted without objection for y ars past in criminal cases, in order to establish motive. The fact that the evidence related to a period of at least 13 months prior to the alleged crime did not render it inadmissible, for where it was a fair presumption to be taken that the state of mind of the accused would continue, Suc-h evidence was admissible, notwithstanding the lapse of time. The Court, having mentioned that it would indicate to-morrow whether it desired to hear Mr Northeroft on the admissibility of Mrs Brown’s evidence, then adjourned. APPEAL’ DISMISSED. WELLINGTON, This Day. The Munn appeal was dismissed. STATEMENT BY CHIEF JUSTICE. WELLINGTON, This Day. When the Court of Appeal sat this morning the Chief Justice stated that the Court did not desire to hear Mr Northeroft on the second point of the appeal, namely, the question of the admissibility of Mrs Brown’s evidence. The Court was unanimously of the opinion that the evidence of the child-., ren was admissible, but as the matter was of importance it would put its reasons into writing at a later date.