THE CASE OF CORDINI.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 12, 11 July 1884, Page 11

THE CASE OF CORDINI.

(Melbourne Advocate, June 21.) Thibb is too much reason to fear that an innocent man has been erecuted for the murder of the hawker Midzon, outside Deniliquin. At the solemn moment when be was about to be launched into eternity and to meet his God, he declared, as with his last breadth, that he bad not committed the murder ; and this is a denial which a Catholic who had received the last sacraments would not have made had he been guilty. There were impenetrable secrets between the unfortunate man and his confessor, Father Hanley, and we would not even attempt to infer the nature of any of these from Cordini's disavowal. We base our arguments solely on occurrences that are no secrets, and one of these, of an important character, is that it was at the clergyman's request the cap was raised from the victim's face and he was afforded an opportunity of speaking. And it is under the circumstances very significant that he availed himself of that opportunity to deny his guilt. For Catholics the case possesses Bpecial interest, for it is hardly open to them to even so ranch as doubt the man's innocence. We could not with reason insist that no one who had professed the Catholic faith has died on the gallows with a lie on his lips. Since the days of the impenitent thief there have been other im penitents of all creeds ; but what we do insist on is that the circumstances of the present case differ very much from examples such as those to which we advert. Cordini was penitent for the sins of his life, or he must have been a hypocrite during Father Hanley s attendance on him, and even up to the last moment, when hope was cut off and hypocrisy could by no possibility avail him anything. But it is known that he received the ministrations of his spiritual adviser with a proper disposition, and that he remained fasting the morning of his execution that he might receive .the last sacraments. His demeanour during the last days of his life, and the nature of his intercourse with Father Hanley, can leave no doubt upon the mind of any Catholic that Cordini availed himself of the consolations of religion in the spirit of a man who, whatever his life may have bee», had not lost the faith. And that being so, there are, apart from all the circumstances of the trial, grave reasons for fearing that in his case a judicial murder has been committed. These circumstances cannot, however, be altogether overlooked, even now though the unfortunate man has met his doom. Notwithstanding all the attempts made to discredit the statements of Mr. Penefather, the barrister, and of Mr. Ochiltree, the solicitor, who were engaged for the defence by the Crown at tha last moment, these gentlemen had not anything like sufficient time to prepare for the defence. The Crown had bad four months to prepare for the prosecution, and Mr. Penefather had but a couple of hours to study his brief. Fcr the Crown a host of witnesses were called to weave a web of circumstantial evidence round the prisoner, and "with the nature of that evidence the gentlemen conducting the defence could have had no adequate previous acquaintance. They could have had no knowledge of the character of the witnesses, or of anj interest these people might have had in the case. And they certainly had bad no time to inquire into the snrroundings or secure evidence of an exculpatory character. The trial, if not a mockery of justice, was certainly one in which justice was most glaringly at fault. Again, when after the reprieve detectives were sent from Sydney to inquire into the case for the information of the Executive Council, these officers seem to have placed themselves under the direction of other officers and people, who, in one way or other, had been engaged in the prosecution. They did not even call upon Mr. Ochiltree, though he was in Deniliquin, and Mr. Penefather 's assistance had not been asked. It is no wonder that the public are dissatisfied with the whole proceedings, and it will be a wonder if we have heard the la-t of them, for the Frpnch Consul in Sydney cannot avoid reporting the case to his Government.