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556 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

was it done by the hand of the prisonert These two ques-
tions will therefore, oceupy your attention.

If the destruction of human life is attained by human
means, no matter how near his end, no matter what hia cir-
eumstances may be, the vietim is entitled to the hope of re-
covery, and his life is under the protection of the law, and to
take such a life is an act of homicide. Now, was the life of
‘Wm. Stiles destroyed under these circumstances? One fact
is beyond all doubt. On the 14th of January last, he was
living, and on the evening of the same day, he was dead, The
question is then, how did he come to that end? Examination
after death is one of the means by which the cause of that
death may bo ascertained. If, after death, the indications
were such that the strong probability is that he died from
some pressure or violence about the head, it becomes a matter
of importance to determine whether it was occasioned by the
deceased himself. There may be 4 condition of things on a
post mortem examination to show that death could not have
been occasioned by strangulation, and then the inference
would be that it was affected by disease, and so vice versa.
But if the cireumstances are such as to apply in both cases,
nothing more is established than that death was occasioned
either by one or the other. You go then to the other cir-
cumstances to ascertain what waa the fact. The question
then is, whether the cause of death was apoplexy by disease
or apoplexy by strangulation.

(Jovez SHaw here introduced illustrations, and quoted
some parts of the testimony in the case, which showed con-
clusively that the death of Stiles could not have been caused
by apoplexy from disease, but that it must have been by acci-
dental or intentional strangulation.)

If the circumstances and the appearance indicate that there
was an accidental, or an intentional homicide, then, gentle-
men, it is for you to determine which. But before proceed-
ing to this part of the ease, I will submit two or three re
marks with regard to the evidence which has been adduced
before you. The English law provides that, where a death

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