“At the last moment after the judge had charged the jury the prisoner started up and asked if he might say a word for himself.
“Upon permission being given he spoke in a manly voice as follows:—
“‘Gentlemen of the jury, his lordship has just charged you to find a verdict entirely upon the evidence. If you do, you will convict me, and add one more to the long list of unfortunate one’s who have been victims of circumstantial evidence.
“‘But I charge you here, in the presence of God and man, to find a verdict according to your own belief, and may some one among you believe me at this moment when I say, as God hears me, I am an innocent man.
“‘You will say I acted wrongly, gentlemen—I grant it myself, if you look at the mere law of the question.’
“It was an unusual speech to make at such a time—one, perhaps, which should not have been permitted. It made quite a sensation in the court, and as the prisoner sat down his fearless eye caught mine for an instant, and I felt, and he felt, that I was the man of whom he spoke, for at that moment with a certainty that amounted to positive conviction I knew that he was innocent.
“The other eleven men came to a decision almost instantly after leaving the box. They said the prisoner was undoubtedly guilty, and I, for awhile, said nothing. I felt that the man’s life was in my hands, that I was in that hour not bound by whatever any man or body of men might say or think, but that I had a solemn question to decide. I said to my fellow jurymen, ‘Gentlemen, I cannot and will not stand with you in a verdict of guilty against the prisoner, as I believe him to be innocent.’
“That was my decision, and all the arguments and objections they could bring forward during a long confinement could not change it.
“On the fourth day we were discharged, and the prisoner set free.
“Much was said against me; I was even accused of having been bought up by the young man’s family, which was a very wealthy and influential one, and even to this day if I go back there I should be pointed out as the man who sold his verdict. But it had been a matter of conscience with me, and I could not regret it. I have yet to tell you how it was the means of saving my life.