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552 ZX. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,

equally zo to the community, and no sympathy for the pris-
oner should be allowed to interfere with the administration
of justice. It is important that it should be distinctly under-
stood that the laws are to be executed with strictness, for if
the notion goes abroad that the murderer may escape by a
want of firmness on the part of jurors, the assassin who was
halting in his purpose, is enconraged, and the jury that hesi-
tated to return a verdict against the criminal, becomes re-
sponsible for two deaths instead of one, It is the duty of tho
jury to judge merely of the fact, without regard to conse-
quences, and in forming their judgment they must act faith-
fully and truly according to the light they possess—they
must form their opinion from such evidence as the criminal
leaves them which in most cases is wholly circumstantial. The
fact that the innocent have been sometimes condemned on
circumstantial evidence, should have no weight on their minds
for the same objection might be urged against all testimony.
A man may swear falsely, as well as a train of cireumstances
deceive and in some cases, indirect evidence may be even
more satisfactory than the assertions of an eye-witness. Col-
lusion of witnesses upon a story that will completely con-
vinee the minds of the jury is easy, but when different indi-
viduals testify to a variety of incidents without being aware
of their mutual connection, if these incidents all tend to a
single point, the weight of evidence may be overwhelming.

The prisoner’s counsel have insisted that De Wolf had no
time to kill Stiles—if the evidence proves this, does it not
also prove that there was no time in which Stiles could have
died? The witnesses testify about how long they were in the
stable, and their testimony is not sufficiently exact to warrant
the conclusion drawn in his defense. The death of Stites is
admitted, and even if death were caused by suicide, De Wolf
waa present, and must have known the fact. What other
than a sinister motive, could De Wolf have had, in carrying
Stiles to the stable against his expressed desire, instead of
taking him homet

The debt to Stiles, for which De Wolf had been once im-

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