May it please
The court, the jury, and all these good people,
The prisoner prays that I would beg for him,
As on his soul's behalf, your prayers and pardon:
That is, while he in penitence will yield
To the just punishment the law awards,
You'll think of him as one misled—not cruel.
The murderous deed his hand did was not done
With heart consent—he knew it not. The fiend
That rum evokes had entered him, and changed