Goodere said he would not trouble the Court with any more evidence as to his character; he was deprived of some evidence by reason of his sickness in gaol, which prevented his friends from coming to advise him about his defence; also there were witnesses on board the ship who might have been of great service to him, but the ship had sailed before he got an order from the Admiralty ordering them to stay on shore.
Frederick drew the Recorder's attention to the fact that there had been several aspersions in the newspapers to the prejudice of Goodere, and that a pamphlet had been published in Bristol called The Bristol Fratricide; but he hoped that the jury would not be influenced by such matters against the prisoner.
The jury declared that they had never seen any such pamphlet or newspapers.
Vernon—Mr. Recorder, we must beg leave to ask Mr. Jarrit Smith's opinion, as to Sir John's being a lunatic or not?
Smith—I am surprised to hear it said by some of Mr. Goodere's witnesses that sir John Dineley Goodere was mad. I knew him fourteen or fifteen years, and conversed with him both in person and by letter; but never discovered that he was in the least disordered in his senses, I always took him to be a man of sound understanding. On the Sunday before his death, he expressed himself with a great deal of good nature and affection at the sight of his brother.
Shepard proposed to call evidence to show that the place where the ship lay was not in the city and county of Bristol.
The Recorder said that the evidence that had been given as to the service of writs, proved that the King's Road was within the jurisdiction, and it was admitted that the ship lay within the Road. If, however, the prisoner could show that any part of the Road was, or ever had been esteemed to be, within any other county than the county of the city of Bristol, he would hear him. He then asked Mahony if he had anything to say.
Mahony—I hope your Lordship will consider that I was a poor, pressed servant, and that I was drunk when I made the confession, and I was frightened out of my wits.
Mr. Recorder—You say you were drunk when you made the confession; it is possible, that night when you were taken and brought before the magistrates you were in liquor, but it seems your confession was not taken until the next day.
Vernon then replied on the whole case; confining himself to pointing out that if Goodere was abetting Mahony in killing Sir John, it made no difference that he was not in the cabin at the time that he was killed.