An Essay on the Rationale of Circumstantial Evidence: Illustrated by Numerous CasesLongman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1838 - 315 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accused acquitted admitted afterwards alibi alleged Allison's Principles Annual Register appeared apprehended arsenic Barnard Barnwall blood body Boughton Celebrated Trials charge child Christison on Poisons circum circumstantial evidence committed conclusion confession corpus delicti cottage Court crime Criminal Law cumstances death deceased deceased's defence Delamirie dence Donellan Duke Durrand Eugene Aram examination fact of death facts footsteps guilt human identified inference innocence John judge judgement judicial jury Justice kind laurel water Law of Scotland Lord Clarendon Medical Jurisprudence moral circumstances moral evidence morning motive murder nature o'clock observed offence Old Bailey opinion Paris and Fonblanque particular person pistol possession presumption prisoner prisoner's probability proof proved prussic acid Reports rule Sarah Green seen shoes Sir Theodosius soner spring assizes stances stomach Stourbridge summer assizes supposed supra suspicion symptoms taken testimony Theodosius tion tried truth Warwick William witnesses wounds
Popular passages
Page 295 - So it is in contemplation; if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
Page 17 - Holland which he was inquisitive after, amongst other things, told him, ' that the water in his country would sometimes in cold weather be so hard that men walked upon it, and that it would bear an elephant, if he were there.' To which the King replied, ' Hitherto I have believed the strange things you have told me, because I look[ed] upon you as a sober, fair man; but now I am sure you lie.
Page 58 - t; I have use for it. Go, leave me. — (Exit Emilia). I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin, And let him find it. Trifles, light as air, Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of Holy Writ.
Page 290 - This is what the daily experience of courts of justice teaches. When accounts of a transaction come from the mouths of different witnesses, it is seldom that it is not possible to pick out apparent or real inconsistencies between them. These inconsistencies are studiously displayed by an adverse pleader, but oftentimes with little impression upon the minds of the judges. On the contrary, a close and minute agreement induces the suspicion of confederacy and fraud.
Page 181 - ... to other persons, together with a scrap of paper found in the prisoner's bureau, had formed one sheet of paper; the ragged edges of the different portions exactly fitting each other, and the water-mark name of the maker, which was divided into three parts, being perfect when the portions of paper were united. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to be transported for fourteen years.
Page 10 - But that testimony is capable of making good the proof there seems no doubt. In truth, the degree of excellence and of strength to which testimony may rise seems almost indefinite. There is hardly any cogency which it is not capable by possible supposition of attaining. The endless multiplication of witnesses — the unbounded variety of their habits of thinking, their prejudices, their interests — afford the means of conceiving the force of their testimony augmented ad injinitum, because these...
Page 190 - They ought rather to reflect, that he who falls by a mistaken sentence, may be considered as falling for his country ; whilst he suffers under the operation of those rules, by the general effect and tendency of which the welfare of the community is maintained and upholden.
Page 184 - No person is to be required to explain or contradict, until enough has been proved to warrant a reasonable and just conclusion against *him, in the absence of explanation or contradiction ; but [ *16.
Page 88 - ... neither the judges, nor any present at the trial, did believe him guilty, but that he was a poor distracted wretch weary of his life, and chose to part with it this way.
Page 2 - The word evidence, in legal acceptation, includes all the means by which any alleged matter of fact the truth of which is submitted to investigation is established or disproved.