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20 TRIAL OF JOHN fit'. WEBSTER,
being proved, it is held to be murder, unless there is evidence arising
out of the whole case, satisfactory to the jury, upon a preponderance
of proof, that the act was committed either in necessary self-defence,
or under such provocation, as reduces the offence to nianslaughter:-
the provocation, however, extending to blows, and not consisting in
words merely, of however irritating or exasperating a character.
In other words we understand it to be the established rule of law,-
and I respectfully submit may it please Your Honors, [here the
Attorney General turned and addressed the Bench,] in a case of secret
killing,-upon the unanimous judgment of this Court, that if a volun-
tary killing be shown, the presumption of law, is, that it is murder,
unless the evidence produced by the Government, or that furnished by
the defendant, proves circumstances of mitigation accompanying the
killing, which reduce it to a lesser offence*
I do not know that it is necessary for me to add another word, Gentle-
men, upon the law which governs this case, or the manner in which
the grand jury have presented the charge against the prisoner.
You are to consider whether it is satisfactorily shown, beyond a- rea-
sonable doubt,-and the nature of that doubt we shall have occasion.
to discuss hereafter; that Dr. Parkman came to his death by the hand
of the prisoner at the bar. If it is, unless something is shown in a
manner satisfactory to your minds, that the act was committed under
such circumstances, as in the eye of the law, (as will be stated to you
by the Court,) reduce it to a lesser offence than the grand jury have
charged against him, your verdict must be, that this indictment is
proved.
And, Gentlemen while you will carefully, considerately, and as true
men, hearken to the evidence; while you will give to the case that
patient and conscientious attention which a just regard for the
interests of the Commonwealth demands of you; and while you will
give to the prisoner the. full benefit of every legal presumption, and of
every legal doubt which the law accords to him, and the facts may
justify:-if, upon this, whole case, when we shall have laid it all before
yolk the conviction shall be impressed upon your minds, that he is
legally responsible to the violated justice of the Commonwealth, for
the murder of an honored and unoffending fellow-citizen, I trust that
you will have the firmness to say so by your verdict.
The Attorney General having concluded hiq opening statement at
one o'clock, the Court took a recess of a few minutes.
On the resumption of the session Mr. Clifford stated to the Court,
that it would be highly desirable, at some stage of the trial, that the
jury should be permitted to go to the Medical College, and take a view
of the- premises where the murder was alleged to have been committed;
that the localities were such, that they could not be understood from
any plan or model; and that much of the evidence would relate to
details connected with the construction of the building and the com-
plicated, connection of its various parts, which it was of the utmost
consequence should be correctly apprehended by the jury.-That, per-
haps the Court if they deemed the motion a proper one, would assign
some interval for attending to it, when no time might be lost from the
regular hours of proceeding.
Mr. Sohier. We are. not aware of any- necessity for a view at the
present stage of the case: nor are we certain that any will be at all
needed. The Government have some excellent plans of the Medical
* The Attorney General was here understood to refer to the case of Com-
monwealth v. York. 9 Met. 93. in which His Honor, Judge Wilde, who dis-
sented from his associates upon other points, concurred with them,-(at
least,
expressed no dissent.)-upon the point of the legal presumption attaching to
secret homicides.
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