The Crime of the Century; Or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry CroninHunt, Henry M.
History
The Crime of the Century; Or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin
Hunt, Henry M.
Cronin, Patrick Henry, 1846-1889; Trials (Assassination) -- Illinois -- Chicago
Your duty is unpleasant, and the duties you have already undergone
have been onerous and burdensome.
"It is unpleasant for a man to sit on the trial of a fellow-man on
a charge involving his life and liberty, but it is your business to
do that in this case. As long as human nature is constituted in
such a way as it is, law will be necessary to make some men walk
straight. Crimes, murders, thefts and arsons can only be prevented
by the enforcement of the law. The law, as I said, can only be
enforced by the jury. On the call of Providence you are here now,
and your duty is before you. Recollect, gentlemen, that while your
duty is serious and burdensome, it is also of vast importance.
Remember, gentlemen, that your duty is just as important and as
necessary, and the necessity for courage and determination to carry
out that duty is as great as it would be upon the battlefield or in
any other walk of life. Deal with these men justly, execute the
law, satisfy your own consciences, and the rest of us will be
satisfied."
* * * * *
COUNSELOR DONAHOE TALKS.
Mr. Ingham was followed by Mr. Donahoe, who spoke in behalf of
O'Sullivan and Kunze. He prefaced his argument with the remark that
there was no duty in the life of a lawyer that afforded him more
pleasure than to defend the innocent; and that, therefore, he began
to plead for the lives of his two clients with a heart as light as
that of a newly-made bride, caressed with her husband's love. It
was the apparent desire of the public prosecutor to disgrace every
witness, who appeared to testify to any fact or circumstance,
tending to show the innocence of the accused, but this course would
never deter him from exercising the best ability that God had given
him, in procuring for his clients every legal right known to the
law and the country. He urged the jury to banish all prejudice, and
to adopt reasonable judgment in considering the legal evidence of
the case and the laws of the country, and urged that if they did
so, his two clients would soon be breathing the free air of heaven.
The counsel drew attention to the fact, that he had been especially
assigned to the defense of Kunze by the Court, the prisoner having
sworn that he did not have a dollar, and also said that until the
opening of the present case he had had no connection with
O'Sullivan or any of his friends. There was nothing to prove, the
counsel went on to argue, that Kunze was in any way connected with
the crime. The young man who claimed to have seen him wash his feet
at the window of the Clark street flat, as well as the
saloon-keeper, whose place he was alleged to have visited on the
night of May the 4th, might easily have been mistaken. It was, in
brief, a case of mistaken identity. Mr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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