Looking at the plain facts of the case and dismissing
from your minds the attempt to make them fit into a purely imaginative
theory, I am sure that you will come to the conclusion that Sir Horace
Fewbanks met his death at the hands of the prisoner."
The junior bar agreed that the case was one which might go either way. If
they had possessed any money the betting market would have shown scarcely
a shade of odds. Everything depended on the way the jury looked at the
case, on the particular bits of evidence to which they attached most
weight, on the view the most argumentative positive-minded members of the
jury adopted, for they would be able to carry the others with them. In
the opinion of the junior bar the summing up of Mr. Justice Hodson would
not help the jury very much in arriving at a verdict. There were some
judges who summed up for or against a prisoner according to the view they
had formed as to the prisoner's guilt or innocence. There were other
judges who summed up so impartially and gave such even-balanced weight to
the points against the prisoner and to the points in his favour, as to
make on the minds of the jurymen the impression that the only way to
arrive at a well-considered verdict was to toss a coin.
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