Trial of William Palmer

by Unknown

When Cheshire was cross-examined by Serjeant Shee he asked him, “Did he not say I knew they would not, for I am as innocent as a baby?” You immediately interrupted, in a most angry tone, saying, “He has already said that,” whereas in truth he had not done so, but the phrase was likely to have an influence on the jury.

Again, when Herring was examined, and Mr. Welsby proposed to give some evidence from the pages of the lost betting book, about whose disappearance one of the greatest points was made against William, Serjeant Shee said, “We cannot have the contents.”

“Lord Campbell—The last account we have got is that it was in Mr. Palmer’s possession.

“Mr. Serjeant Shee—I do not think there is any proof of its ever having been in Mr. Palmer’s possession.

“Mr. Attorney-General—We show that it was in the dead man’s room on the Tuesday night before his death, and Mr. Palmer is afterwards seen looking about; we have no one else, my lord, that we can resort to.” ... (This was utterly false, for the last person who saw it, or swore she saw it, was Mills, and that was on Monday night.)

“Lord Campbell—I do not think we can receive this evidence” (report, p. 41).

Thus you were about to admit the contents of that book on the plea that my brother possessed it, a plea entirely untrue, and not only not supported, but even negatived by the evidence. My lord, if you do these things in matters of life and death, who among us is safe?

When Bates was called, it was proposed to give in evidence the facts of the insurance, and you permitted a discussion to arise which put the jury in possession of all the facts. You then said, “On the Attorney-General’s opening I doubted whether this would be relevant and proper evidence to be received at this trial” (yet you permitted him to open it!), “and upon consideration my brothers agree with me it is too remote to be admissible.” But all the evil had then been done, the jury having been prejudiced by the statement and discussion. And not one word did you say to them in your charge about disabusing their minds of the false impression which it might have made.

When you commented on the medical evidence you told the jury that my brother had an opportunity of substituting for Bamford’s pills others made by himself. What right had you to do that? Was it not leading their minds to an inference that he did so, and that the substituted pills contained poison? (report, p. 315).

You introduced Sir Benjamin Brodie with great praises; in fact, you praised all the medical witnesses for the Crown, and confined your applause to only one of those for the prisoner, who slightly coincided with Taylor’s notions. You said of Sir Benjamin—“You will take into consideration the solemn opinion of this distinguished medical man, that he never knew a case in which the symptoms that he heard described arose from any disease. He has seen and known the various diseases that afflict the human frame in all their multiplicity, and he knows of no natural disease such as will answer the symptoms which he heard described in the case of Cook; and if it did not arise from natural disease, then the inference is that it arose from other causes” (report, p. 316). Now, Sir Benjamin formed his opinion upon two inconsistent statements made by Mills and Dr. Jones. If what Mills swore was all true, then, perhaps, Sir Benjamin Brodie would have been justified in saying that no disease that he had seen accorded with that description; but if what Mills swore was all false, and it was entirely inconsistent with what Dr. Jones proved, then also it would not be consistent with natural disease, or with anything in Nature, and yet my brother be innocent of this crime. If Mills invented a number of symptoms which no medical man had ever seen, and it is what an ignorant chambermaid who was disposed to perjure herself might be supposed to do, then what Sir Benjamin Brodie proved would have been correct, and he could not assign to any natural disease that which was, in truth, but a fictitious narrative; but it would not necessarily follow from that that Cook died of poison, as you told the jury it would, but it would as logically follow that the whole of the symptoms not being in accordance with any known disease were invented by an unskilful person, and unskilfully put together for the occasion. I think you saw in its full force the effect of this, for it will be seen by the report that you prevented Serjeant Shee from discovering on which of these two witnesses Sir Benjamin relied in premising his opinion.