If their verdict was
"guilty" the responsibility of taking the prisoner's life would rest upon
the law--not on the jury, not on His Honour who passed the sentence of
death, not on the prison officials who carried out the execution. The
jury would do well to keep in mind the fact that their responsibility in
this trial, impressive and important as every one must acknowledge it to
be, was nevertheless strictly limited as far as the taking of the life of
the prisoner was concerned.
He then went over the evidence in detail, building up again the case for
the prosecution where Mr. Holymead had made breaches in it, and
attempting to demolish the case for the defence. Hill, he declared, was
an honest witness. The man had made one false step but he had done his
best to retrieve it, and with the help he had received from his late
master, Sir Horace Fewbanks, he would have buried the past effectively if
it had not been for the fact that the prisoner, who was a confirmed
criminal, had determined to drag him down. There was no doubt that
Hill's association with Birchill had been unfortunate for him. It had
dragged his past into the light of day, and he stood before them a ruined
man.
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