Mr. Sayles then cited from “Chitty’s Criminal Law,” vol. iii., which says, “that the piracy must be distinctly proved to have been committed on the high seas, or the defendant is entitled to an acquittal.” According to that law the admiralty had no jurisdiction within the limits of any county or city. The counsel then proceeded to appeal to the reason of the jury, and lay the facts before them. It was a case of great importance, not only to the federal government and to the community, but also to the unfortunate prisoner at the bar, and he called upon the jury to elevate their minds above outside prejudices. A supposed tragedy had been committed in the lower bay, and the government had undertaken to show, by circumstantial evidence, that this is the man who perpetrated it. Counsel referred to the nature of circumstantial evidence, and alluded to the recent case in this court, where some half dozen witnesses swore positively to a man named Williams for post-office robbery, and subsequently swore as positively against another man, who was convicted.
Mr. Hunt, in reply, directed the court in support of the jurisdiction of the United States courts over the lower bay.
Mr. Graves, for the defence, referred to the case of the two Bournes, in Vermont, who confessed to the crime of murder, but were afterward proved to be innocent. The evidence against Hicks was entirely circumstantial, and of such a character as to render it very uncertain; but the most astonishing thing about the prosecution was the charge that this one man should kill these three men, powerful as they were, and not receive a single scratch. There must have been a terrible struggle; blood was spattered over the ceiling, blood everywhere, but no blood on him, no mark of violence on his person.
Mr. Hunt remarked that the only questions of law upon which there had been any dispute, were ruled upon by the Court, and he had nothing further to say.
Mr. Dwight then proceeded to sum up on the part of the government. He had hoped that there might have been some chance of the innocence of the prisoner found in the course of the trial. But he had been disappointed; nothing which had been asserted by the witnesses for the prosecution had been contradicted. No attempt had been made to break any one link in the chain of the evidence. The defence would endeavor to induce the jury to believe that Capt. Burr parted with his watch, which he had carried for nine years, to a pawnbroker; that Smith Watts had parted with the clothes which his aged mother had put up for him; that Oliver Watts had parted with the daguerreotype of the girl he loved. The time had not yet come when Yankee sailor boys gave up the pictures of “the girls they left behind them” without a struggle. Mr. Dwight then clearly and concisely reviewed the whole case and the testimony, giving a painful but graphic description of that dread night when this triple deed of blood was perpetrated, and concluded thus: Gentlemen, I have occupied your time longer than I intended, and I have but one word further to say. If this prisoner is not proven guilty of the crime against him, he is of course an innocent man. If there is in the breast of any of you one doubt concerning his guilt—one reasonable doubt as to his having committed this robbery of George H. Burr, as set forth in the indictment, in God’s name give him the benefit of that doubt. It is his sacred privilege, and it is just as much his right as he has a right to his life or his liberty. If you have any doubt upon considering the evidence, give him the benefit of that doubt, or any which you may have. But, gentlemen, if through the five days of this trial there has crept into your minds a conviction that he is the man, and if that conviction has been strengthened by the evidence which has been adduced and placed before you—that no other but he had committed this crime, then I say that his conviction is the property of the government, and I charge you to give it to the government. Here, in your seats, where you have sat during these five days listening to the opening and the testimony, and the closing upon the part of the government—here, in your very seats, I charge you to give the benefit of your conviction to the government, and I charge you to do this in your jury box without any hesitation. Gentlemen, there was no hesitation on his part; with that sharp axe he cut down the fair-haired boy, Watts; and then returned and felled the other: and then the death struggle with the captain occurred. Gentlemen, there was no hesitation there; and if you are convinced of his guilt, let there be no hesitation in your rendering in your jury box a verdict against him. There cries from the sands of Islip, “justice;” from that widow and from that mother. There comes up from the depths of the Atlantic, “from all the ships that float on it, and all that go down in the great deep”—there comes the cry of “justice.” The prisoner equally calls upon you to do justice; and gentlemen, I ask you, in the name of the government, if you believe him guilty of this crime, which he committed speedily, summarily and devilishly, that you will let your verdict be speedy, summary and just.
During the whole of Mr. Dwight’s address, which occupied nearly an hour, the prisoner was still unmoved; he never winced, but coolly twisted and turned a pen in his hand, pointing it to the table, and scarcely once looked up.
Judge Smalley said it was now past four o’clock, and he desired to look into some authorities which had been referred to; he would not charge the jury until morning.
The Court then adjourned to Saturday morning, at ten o’clock. The prisoner was removed, in irons, by Deputy Marshals De Angelis and Dugan, who had special charge of him, and who kept a sharp watch that he should have no means of suicidal death at hand, nor make any effectual effort to escape.
The court-room was, as it had been every day during this extraordinary trial, densely crowded.
Sixth Day.