Black, Jack, 1871-1932; Criminals -- Canada -- Biography; Criminals -- United States -- Biography
Chew Chee, the Chinese boy, had stolen two thousand dollars cash from
his employer. He told me he gambled it away before he got arrested. At
any rate, the money was never recovered. My jailer spread the report
around that I took the Chinese boy with me so I could get the two
thousand, after which I had murdered him and secreted his body. Whether
he believed it or only pretended to, I never knew. He never questioned
me about Chew Chee, and now when he got drunk instead of calling me just
plain “damned Yank,” he chucked in another adjective, “murderous.” To
get even with him I began sleeping in the daytime and walking up and
down the cell all night, clanking the leg irons to keep him awake. He
retaliated by prodding me with a long stick every time he caught me
sleeping in the daytime, and I gave it up.
He took my Bible away and when the Salvation Army came on Sunday I
reported it to them. Somebody regulated him, and he grudgingly returned
it.
I had some thought of taking a jury trial. One never can tell what a
small-town jury will do. Sometimes they carry their neighborhood feuds
into the jury room and the defendant gets a disagreement. But after my
jailer spread his story about my murdering the China boy, I dismissed
the jury from my mind and decided to go before the court under the
Speedy Trials Act. A defendant electing for a speedy trial dispenses
with a jury and saves time and money for the community. A speedy trial
is almost equivalent to a plea of guilty, but when the defendant is
found guilty the court, in passing sentence, considers the fact that
there has been no expensive jury trial and is more lenient.
The Crown counsel called at the jail to ask what I wanted in the way of
a trial. I told him, and he had the witnesses subpœnaed for a certain
day. I could have got a young lawyer of the town with the money I
brought from Victoria, but it looked to me like a willful waste, and I
held it.
In due time the judge arrived at the town. My irons were struck off, and
I went into court. I got a brief, dignified, orderly trial. The train
conductor appeared and identified me and the fatal twenty-dollar bill I
gave him. All the other witnesses testified, word for word, as they did
at my examination. I removed any doubts there might have been as to my
guilt by declining to go on the witness stand. This trial consumed
almost an hour.
Then I was tried for escaping from Her Majesty’s jail. That consumed
fifteen minutes.
Having no lawyer, the judge asked me if I wanted to go over the points
in the case. I thanked him and said I could not presume to instruct His
Lordship on law points. He gave his verdict then, “Guilty, both
charges.”
“Anything to say before sentence?” he asked.
Thinking he might be feeling better after lunch I asked till one o’clock
to prepare a very short statement. He adjourned court. At one o’clock I
stood up and said: “Your Lordship, my trial was fair; your verdict
just.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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