OCR Text |
Show GREAT LEARMMG IS Dublin Lawyer Seeks to Prove No Statute Exists to Support Charge on Which Rebel Was Tried. By W. ORTON TEWSON. (Special Cable "by Arrangement with Lc News S LONDON, July 17. The appeal of Sir Roger Casement from his conviction of treason, carrying with it the death sentence, was argued today in the court of criminal appeal before Justices Darling, Dar-ling, Bray, Scrutton, Lawrence and Atkln. Alexander Sullivan of Dublin, counsel for Sir 'Roger', in his argument, argu-ment, briefly outlined the grounds on which the appeal was taken. He said the prisoner was Indicted for "high treason by adhering to the king's enemies en-emies elsewhere than in the king's realm, to wit: In the empire of Germany," Ger-many," which was contrary to the treason act of 1352 under the reign of Edward I IT. He said the appeal Involved In-volved two questions: First, whether the offense charged against Sir Roger was an offense within the statute of Edward III. Second, whether the definition of the offense adhering to the king's enemies en-emies given at the trial at the bar by the lord chief justice was a correct definition. No Such Crime, Says Lawyer. Mr. Sullivan proposed to argue that under no circumstances could there be under the statute of Edward HI such a crime as adhering to the king's enemies elsewhere than in the king's realm. Clearly, he contended, the statute did not in any degree purport to legislate for "any territory outside the king's realm. True, it was extended ex-tended beyond the realm by subsequent subse-quent special statutes, but those statutes had in due course disappeared dis-appeared and with them the offense 1 of adhering elsewhere than in the klng'a realm. , Many Interesting Verbal Passages. Dwelling on the question of venue, Mr. Sullivan probed deep into the ancient statutes and had several interesting in-teresting verbal passages with Justice TJarling as to the scope of the inquiries in-quiries by the coroner's and the statutory tribunals in feudal times. The submissions by Mr. Sullivan were made pointed by reference to a case in 1401, reported In Coram Regia, in which a certain individual was indicted in-dicted for assisting In the treason of Owen Glendower of conspiring to bring about the death of the king and the Prince of Wales, when It was held he could not be tried In the king's bench, Westminster, because at that time Wales was not a part of the realm. Justice Darling remarked at ' this stage that King Henry IV could have radon Daily Telegraph and International ervlce.) appointed a special commission to try the case in Wales, where the offense was committed. Mr. Sullivan retorted re-torted that such a commission would have to be appointed by special statute. Deeply Immersed in Text Books. Counsel then advanced the broad proposition that unless there existed machinery for inquiring into the alleged al-leged offense, no offense known to law existed. An act could not be what in law amounted to a crime of which no court could inform itself. Even down to the eighteenth century, whenever when-ever a statute was passed dealing with the offense committed outside the realm, there was a. provision for venue. That fact he took to be a strong support of his theory of the inapplicability of the statute of Edward Ed-ward III to the present case. - At times the judges and counsel were deeply immersed in text books of various degrees of antiquity. Coke and Hale were frequently quoted by Sullivan. Justice Darling intimated that he and Justice Atkin had been at the record office and did not only peruse the statute of Edward III in the original Norman French, but had compared the statute roll with the parliament roll, marking discrepancies discrep-ancies In both words and punctuation. The effect of his reading, he said, was that tlie words "giving aid and comfort" com-fort" to an enemy were merely a definition of adhering to the king's enemies. Much Depends on Punctuation. Mr. Sullivan at once fastened on the circumstance of the varying punctuation and suggested crimes should not depend upon the significance signifi-cance of commas and breaks in the text. If, he contended, doubt was created by those signs, it should go to the benefit of the accused and not in favor of the crown. Mr, Sullivan quoted from a well-known commentary com-mentary to the effect that if a man shot another on the edge of one county and the victim died in the next county, the murderer could not be tried in either county, because he had not completed the offense in either. Justice barling had a moral at hand, however, saying: "Always commit murder on the edge of a. county." Even the countenance of Sir Roger Casement, overborne with the sentence sen-tence of death on him, lightened at these incidents encroaching upon proceedings pro-ceedings on the whole depressing. It Is thought likely that the appeal will be decided tomorrow. |