Misdirections as to Cause of Death
On the first day of his summing-up, however, Mr. Justice Stephen told the jury as to the law under which they were to return their verdict: “You have been told that if you are not satisfied in your minds about poisoning—if you think he died from some other disease—then the case is not made out against the prisoner. It is a necessary step—it is essential to this charge—that the man died of poison, and the poison suggested is arsenic. This is the question you have to consider, and it must be the foundation of a judgment unfavorable to the prisoner that he died of arsenic.”
It is submitted that Mr. Justice Stephen misdirected the jury when he told them to satisfy their minds whether he died from any other disease, inasmuch as the only question before the jury was whether the cause of death was arsenic.
“The question for you is by what the illness was caused. Was it caused by arsenic or by some other means?”
It is submitted that that is a misdirection. It might have been put to a coroner’s jury, but it was not a question which should have been put to a jury at a criminal trial.
It is submitted that he misdirected the jury in not also telling them that it was essential to a verdict unfavorable to the prisoner that the arsenic of which he died had been administered by her, and also in not telling the jury that it was essential to a verdict unfavorable to the prisoner that, if she had administered any, she had done it with intent to destroy life.