THE MURDER CASE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 280, 30 March 1889, Page 2

THE MURDER CASE.

VERDICT OF GUILTY—SENTENCED TO DEATH.

Afteb a very patient trial, extending over a period of three days, Haira te Piri has been found guilty of the awful crime committed at Mataahu in December last. The gentlemen of the jury were:—W. Morgan (foreman), J. B. Cook, F. J. Oatridge, J. Campbell. M. Jennings, G. A, Farmer, M. Todd, R. P. Burke, J. McKenzie, J. Longley, J. Tutcheh, R. Turnbull. Mr Gully, with Mr Nolan, appeared on behalf of the Crown, and Mr Kenny, with Mr Watson, for the prisoner. The evidence was concluded early on Thursday morning, Mr Kenny not calling anyone for the defence.

MB GUILT'S EUMMINS UP. Mr Gully arrayed the different points before the jury in a manner that could not leave much grounds for mistake. The address, indeed, was a masterpiece. There was no display of sentiment or any oratorical flights. In a calm and unimpassioned voice, the tone moderate but the words clearly articulated, Mr Gully dwelt upon each successive point, as though he had made the ease a long study. Belying almost wholly upon his memory, he reviewed the evidence, quoted the statements of the witnesses as they bore him out in each point, and leaving it to the commonsense of the jury to form their own conclusions. He seemed to have all the Maori names and names of places off by heart, bringing them out in a way that could not be improved on by native scholars well acquainted with the locality. In view of the decision arrived at, it ia unnecessary, nor would space allow, to give Mr Gully’s address in the complete form in which it deserves to be given; but when he resumed bis seat, one could not help thinking that the jury would have little trouble in coming to a decision. MB KBNNV'S ADDBESB. Mr Kenny clearly had to struggle against an almost hopeless case. The chain of evidence appeared so complete that at best Mr Kenny could hardly expect bis power could help the prisoner. He made the most of a hopeless case, and there is no doubt that on some points he must have impressed the jury with the responsibility of deciding if they were at all in doubt; but taken as a whole, the case was too complete to be affected by doubts on minor points. He said the time had arrived when he must point out the weak points in the prosecution, and what might seem to give reasonable grounds for doubt. When a case of this kind happened in a small community it was quite impossible for the jury to come to tho box without having previously formed some opinion. The evidence of the prosecution is given in the R.M. Court, reported by the newspapers, and got moulded in the mind. Their first duty was to eschew those opinions; they must form their judgment on the evidence before them, and after eon.idering all that had been said to them to come to their decision, The position of the prisoner was a most forlorn one—the crime on which he was charged was so hideous that a feeling of dislike was engendered against him in the minds of all people. There were only two people, himself ana His Honor, who would say a word in favor of the prisoner. The whole of the evidence before them was what is known as circumstantial evidence. It was an abuse of language to say that the bloody footprints were direct evidence. The whole case absolutely depended on circumstantial evidence. Juries had to bo very particular in deciding upon circumstantial evidence, as so many perilous mistakes had been made. When the suspicion is directed against a person that the police follow it up and hunt up all those persons who can give evidence as to little details, and all the insignificant facts, in themselves nothing, become, when a crime of the kind has been committed, of apparently vast importance. The evidence was satisfactory so far as the gambling and loss of the money was concerned, but after that the jury was asked to decide upon conjecture. The p-osecution asked them to make conjecture that he was afraid to go home without money, and also as to where he had been in the intervening space when the prosecution had not got evidence to show where he was. It was not a likely thing that Haira would be afraid to meet his wife because he had lost such a trivial sum—the Maoris generally made beasts of burden of the women. Not one witness had been brought to back up the conjecture as to Haira’s whereabouts on the Wednesday night. It appeared that Mr Pook must have been murdered between 9 and 10 p.m. If Haira left to go there at 6 o’clook he must have been at Mataabu two hours before the murder was Committed—what was he doing all the time ? On that point the prosecution proved too much, At Beporua the Maoris appeared to have got to bed in the evening. It was quite possible he might have left Akuaku about 5 or 6 and got home about 8, then gone to bed quietly, and none of the other natives knew anything about it. None of the witnesses had said he was not there, and he had been proved to be there at midnight. People, after an occurrence of the kind, spoke with a colour of the deed in their minds—it gave them preconceived notions, and one speaking to the other when they were in this frame of mind were wont to make much of things which might have no significance. The Maoris, for instance, got talking one to another and came to conclusions which were perhaps not just. As to the statements made by Haira himself they might be accounted for in many ways. The policeman had gone to him, and by his questions so frightened him, that the man naturally might not be expected to make rational statements—it was a remarkable thing when people were charged with such awful crimes they lost their self-control and often made very foolish replies. His learned friend had painted the evidence that had been brought for the p-oseoution. The additional evidence as to the blood on the shirt and coat showed a remarkable omission from the evidence previously given, and they must accept it with many doubts. His friend made a great point about the knife, but there was no conclusive evidence on the one hand, while on the other a Maori woman who had seen the prisoner dressing—and if he had the knife must have seen it—said she had not seen the knife on him. All they could take from the knife theory, was that an old woman had found it in an out of the way place and another Maori had said it was Haira’s. They could not take any definite conclusion from the boot prints and boot unless they were guided by inference which it was for them to consider whether they were safe in making. It was possible that the expert had been mistaken in regard to the bloodspots—they knew they were expected to give evidence in one direction and could not but help being somewhat influenced. The whole case, he pointed out to them, depended upon a lot of small matters fitted together, and they must recognise the serious responsibility which they had to discharge. If they pronounced the prisoner guilty on the evidence before them be would inevitably be hanged, and they should be very clear on the matter before they came to any such oonlusion. The murilself was a dreadful one, but a judical murder was much more terrible, Unless Haira’s guilt appeared to them as the noonday sun they should not bring a verdict against him.

THE JUDGE’S CHABOE. His Honor said the ease could best be grasped by taking the evidence as a whole. To use a homely metaphor which he had frequently used in similar oases, you may take a bundle of sticks and break them one by one, but bind them together and see if they will stand the test. There might be one or two rotten sticks offered by the prosecution, but that might not affect the carrying power of the whole, or one strong stick might bear the strain. There was one strong fact upon which Mr Gully had laid the greatest strain—that was the boot prints, It might almost of itself warrant conviction—that was for them tossy; the whole facts plight constitute an irrefutable case against the prisoner. With regard to the marks of blood the jury could not after the lapse of time expect to see them as they appeared when fresh, and in this matter they must to some extent be guided by the evidence of Mr Wallis and others. The exhibits had been a good deal mutilated in the examinations that had been made upon them. They had to rely upon the evidence of the experta that the blood is that of a mammal—scientific examiners could not testify that it was human blood. But this evidence was only brought in as confirmatory, and was not as in a chemical examination where they had to depend entirely on what they were told to atoide»to whether poiseti had been

used. The bloody footprints probably was the strongest proof allute.l agairsl the prisoner. He did not propcsa to weary them at all as to the evidence which went, to show that the murder was committed. He assumed, as also did counsel, that the three people were murdered, ahi on the nirht saggested. The question dilit? and was there any doubt left that Haira was the guilty man ? He thought the evidence left no doubt. Of course there were alwiays soma doubts which human power could not clear up. The witnesses might be peijurore, they might be mistaken as to identity—there was always some infinitesimal doubt, but which could not be regarded in a Court of Justice—which was not a reasonable doubt. What was meant by a reasonable doubt was a doubt fixed in their minds, such as they would go upon in common life—a possibility, a real practical possibility of error. If they found that excluded then they were justified in saying the evidence was complete. Mr Kenny, he thought wisely, had given up the contention that Haira had gone from Akuaku by an inland road. With that also appeared, as a falsehood, Haira’s statement that he had been marking cattle at Pakeke, and the father also said he had no stock there. Another important circumstance with the route was the finding of the sheath knife, which bad been identified as prisoner's. It had been testified that Haira had some to Akuaku at daylight on Wednesday morning, and left again at sunset. The witness who had stated this said he had known Haira from his childhood, and while he lived at Akuaku he was always liked by the people. It appeared clear the prisoner bad departed along the coast road about six. There was no certain means of knowing at what time the deed was done, but the probability is that it had been done when the first four natives arrested had passed, Mr Kenny had put it to them that if Haira had gone to Pook’s, he must have arrived too early, but that did not go for much, as men who premeditated anything of the kind would not time themselves to the minute. There was no certainty as to when Haira arrived at the whare, but that was not necessarily of importance, provided it was shown that he was not there when the other natives went to bed and that he arrived during the night. The evidence on this point.was sufficiently plain. Haira’s statement of arrival must have been wrong, because he says when he arrived the women were weaving, while on the other hand it was testified the women had not been weaving on that day. The evidence before them must satisfy them that the footprints could not have been made by Mr Swan or Mr Wallis having stepped into the blood, There were some bloodmarks outside which were difficult to account for, but he did not think it necessarily had much bearing on the question, The question was as to who did ths deei ? There was no doubt in the world as to the bloody footprints, and that the mark produced was a bloody footprint, The main point with regard to the knife was as a mark that Haira had passed that road, and that some of the wounds had appeared to the doctor (before the knife was found) to have been made by a knife. If Haira had been using the knife at the station, it must have been some days previously, and there would hardly be any blood upon it, arising from that, on Thursday morning. A good many witnesses said they had not seen a knife on Haira at Akuaku, but one witness who had stated in the R.M. Court that Haira did not have the knife subsequently qualified her statement by saying she made that assertion because she had not seen it. The blood on the clothes was a most important point; it might be possible for a man to get blood on his clothes in many ways, but the blood on Haira’s clothes was on in such a way as to indicate something unusual Then there was Constable Gerard's evidence, which had not previously been made, that there was also blood on the boy’s shirt, which not having transpired bJ we, it had nor been examined by an expert. Mr Skey had examined the second boot an I found ihat there was also blood on that. Mr Kenny had rather misapplied the circumstance! wi'h regard to the expert's evidence, which could not be taken as having been made with any other object than that of impartiality. It was cltogaibor different to a civil case, in which both sides brought forth expert evidence upholding either's view of the case. His Honor then alluded to the point ns to how Haira, who had no money on Tuesday morning, became possessed of money before the Thursday, and for which he did not satisfactorily account, and also had made false statements in regard to it. Then were also the goods discovered upon him, especially the boy’s suit, which tha woman had not previously seen, and which had not bean satisfactorily accounted far. Allusion was then made to the conversation that had taken place in the prison betwean Haira and Hohepa, in the course of which the former said he would ba the only one who would go to the Supreme Court, as he had so many marks upon him. His Honor said it was an extraordinary thing that so many of his own relations, even his father and brother, supplied evidence against him, and the fairness with which this appeared to have been done might be a lesson to our own raee, which he must say some sections of communities badly wanted. He need not impress upon them the necessity of using the same judgment with regard to a native as they would with any European. He concluded by expressing a hope that a spirit of truth and wisdom might enlighten their understanding, and guide them to a just decision. The jury then retire!, at 1.25 p.m. BETUBN OF THE JUBX—“ GUILTY.”

His Honor resumed his seat on the Bench at 4.30. A large number of people had been waiting in expectancy all the afternoon, and probably by noting the movements of His Honor, an impression very soon got abroad that the jury had agreed, and the Courthouse was quickly crowded with people. At 4.35 the jury returned to Court. There was a breathless silence ; the prisoner's eyes seemed glazed upon the Judge, and as one noted the stony stare of the glassy eyes, it was impossible not to give way to a feeling of P Clerk : Gentlemen of the jury, are you agreed ? The Foreman : We are. The Clerk: What is your verdict ? The Foreman : We find the prisoner guilty. On the prisoner being asked it he had any. thing to say, ho replied, in Maori : " I have nothing to say.”

THE SENTENCE. His Honor the Judge: Prisoner at tho bar, after a patient trial you are found guilty of a most cruel murder. The evidence against you has been satisfactory to the jury and to m’, It has been largely furnished by your own countrymen, I wish to say no word to add to the misery of your situation, but mercy from man you have none to expect. I commend you to the mercy of God, which never faileth. You can make no reparation for this horrible deed, but there is one sign of grace that you can give of the penitence you feel, and I recommend you to give it. You can confess your crime and the justness of your sentence. It only remains that I pass upon you the extreme sentence of the law, as tha mouthpiece of the law. It is, to bs taken thence to the place whence you came, and then in due course of law to a place of execution, and that you be there hanged by the ncok until you are dead. May God have m.ray on your soul 1 Remove the prisoner. THE CONDEMNED MAN'S APPEARANCE. Beyond an unexplainable clcud pairing over ths prisoner's face, sod disayj: >aring

almost instantly, he remained ■■‘ar-• standfastly as though he were insensible of his position, and it was not until the moment came for his removal that one oou’d notice any. thing further in his demeanor that would indicate he had any idea of the awful position in which he was placed.