“NO UNWRITTEN LAW.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 9, 8 December 1926, Page 14

“NO UNWRITTEN LAW.”

IN BRITISH CODE. LONDON, Nov. 26. ; “There is no unwritten law in Britain. It is not an answer to t a murder charge to say that jealousy prompted Smith to fire the revolver,” said Mr Roland Oliver, prosecuting at the trial at Maidstone (Kent) of Alfonso Smith, on a charge of the murder of the pal of his Eton schooldays, John Derham. Smith, the inheritor of two fortunes, had said in a letter to his wife (a descendant of Napoleon) that the problem could be solved only by the removal of himself or Derham. At the trial Smith wore a buttonhole of white heather. WIFE CANNOT TESTIFY. Mr Oliver explained that the law did not permit the calling in of evidence of the wife, who was the sole witness of the firing. He hinted that the defence would seek to prove that the revolver was fired- during a struggle for its possession; but he would call evidence to show that this theory was untenable. Sir Edward Marshall-Hall, K.C. (for the defence), suggested, in crossexamination, that Smith was withdrawing the revolver from his hip “pocket, when Derham seized it, and was shot. Smith was found not guilty of manslaughter, but was sent to gaol for having an unlicensed firearm.