In his closing speech on the third day of the trial, Sir Charles pointed
out with great exhaustiveness and cogency the flimsiness of the case for
the prosecution, the number of hypotheses it involved, and their mutual
interdependence. Mrs. Drabdump was a witness whose evidence must be
accepted with extreme caution. The jury must remember that she was
unable to dissociate her observations from her inferences, and thought
that the prisoner and Mr. Constant were quarreling merely because they
were agitated. He dissected her evidence, and showed that it entirely
bore out the story of the defense. He asked the jury to bear in mind
that no positive evidence (whether of cabmen or others) had been given
of the various and complicated movements attributed to the prisoner on
the morning of December 4th, between the hours of 5:25 and 7:15 a. m.,
and that the most important witness on the theory of the prosecution--he
meant, of course, Miss Dymond--had not been produced. Even if she were
dead, and her body were found, no countenance would be given to the
theory of the prosecution, for the mere conviction that her lover had
deserted her would be a sufficient explanation of her suicide. Beyond
the ambiguous letter, no tittle of evidence of her dishonor--on which
the bulk of the case against the prisoner rested--had been adduced. As
for the motive of political jealousy that had been a mere passing cloud.
The two men had become fast friends. As to the circumstances of the
alleged crime, the medical evidence was on the whole in favor of the
time of death being late; and the prisoner had left London at a quarter
past seven. The drugging theory was absurd, and as for the too clever
bolt and lock theories, Mr. Grodman, a trained scientific observer, had
pooh-poohed them. He would solemnly exhort the jury to remember that if
they condemned the prisoner they would not only send an innocent man to
an ignominious death on the flimsiest circumstantial evidence, but they
would deprive the workingmen of this country of one of their truest
friends and their ablest leader.
The conclusion of Sir Charles' vigorous speech was greeted with
irrepressible applause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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