The Life, Trial, Confession and Execution of Albert W. Hicks: The Pirate and Murderer, Executed on Bedloe's Island, New York Bay, on the 13th of July, 1860, for the Murder of Capt. Burr, Smith and Oliver Watts, on Board the Oyster Sloop E. A. Johnson. Containing the History of His Life (Written by Himself) from Childhood Up to the Time of His Arrest. With a Full Account of His Piracies, Murders, Mutinies, High-way Robberies, etc., Comprising the Particulars of Nearly One Hundred Murders! to whicHicks, Albert W.
History
The Life, Trial, Confession and Execution of Albert W. Hicks: The Pirate and Murderer, Executed on Bedloe's Island, New York Bay, on the 13th of July, 1860, for the Murder of Capt. Burr, Smith and Oliver Watts, on Board the Oyster Sloop E. A. Johnson. Containing the History of His Life (Written by Himself) from Childhood Up to the Time of His Arrest. With a Full Account of His Piracies, Murders, Mutinies, High-way Robberies, etc., Comprising the Particulars of Nearly One Hundred Murders! to whic
Hicks, Albert W.
Burr, Capt. (George H.), -1860; Hicks, Albert W., approximately 1820-1860 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Piracy) -- New York (State) -- New York; Watts, Oliver, -1860; Watts, Smith, -1860
Mr. DWIGHT then proceeded to sum up on the part of the government. He
had hoped that there might have been some chance of the innocence of the
prisoner found in the course of the trial. But he had been disappointed;
nothing which had been asserted by the witnesses for the prosecution had
been contradicted. No attempt had been made to break any one link in the
chain of the evidence. The defence would endeavor to induce the jury to
believe that Capt. Burr parted with his watch, which he had carried for
nine years, to a pawnbroker; that Smith Watts had parted with the
clothes which his aged mother had put up for him; that Oliver Watts had
parted with the daguerreotype of the girl he loved. The time had not yet
come when Yankee sailor boys gave up the pictures of “the girls they
left behind them” without a struggle. Mr. Dwight then clearly and
concisely reviewed the whole case and the testimony, giving a painful
but graphic description of that dread night when this triple deed of
blood was perpetrated, and concluded thus: Gentlemen, I have occupied
your time longer than I intended, and I have but one word further to
say. If this prisoner is not proven guilty of the crime against him, he
is of course an innocent man. If there is in the breast of any of you
one doubt concerning his guilt—one reasonable doubt as to his having
committed this robbery of George H. Burr, as set forth in the
indictment, in God’s name give him the benefit of that doubt. It is his
sacred privilege, and it is just as much his right as he has a right to
his life or his liberty. If you have any doubt upon considering the
evidence, give him the benefit of that doubt, or any which you may have.
But, gentlemen, if through the five days of this trial there has crept
into your minds a conviction that he is the man, and if that conviction
has been strengthened by the evidence which has been adduced and placed
before you—that no other but he had committed this crime, then I say
that his conviction is the property of the government, and I charge you
to give it to the government. Here, in your seats, where you have sat
during these five days listening to the opening and the testimony, and
the closing upon the part of the government—here, in your very seats, I
charge you to give the benefit of your conviction to the government, and
I charge you to do this in your jury box without any hesitation.
Gentlemen, there was no hesitation on his part; with that sharp axe he
cut down the fair-haired boy, Watts; and then returned and felled the
other: and then the death struggle with the captain occurred. Gentlemen,
there was no hesitation there; and if you are convinced of his guilt,
let there be no hesitation in your rendering in your jury box a verdict
against him. There cries from the sands of Islip, “justice;” from that
widow and from that mother. There comes up from the depths of the
Atlantic, “from all the ships that float on it, and all that go down in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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