Trial of John Tawell for the murder of Sarah Hart by prussic acid : with remarks / by D. Skae.

  • Skae, David, 1814-1873.
Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Trial of John Tawell for the murder of Sarah Hart by prussic acid : with remarks / by D. Skae. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    their opinion it appeared that a grain, or even less than a grain, as proved by the case of the seven Parisian epileptics referred to, might cause death; and Mr Cooper had stated that he had not the least doubt that the stomach of the deceased contained at least a grain, if not more, of pure prussic acid. The learned judge then proceeded to go over the whole evidence with great care, and to comment upon the bearing of the various facts which had been established. The jury, after half an hour’s absence, brought in a unani- mous verdict of guilty. Previous to the execution of Tawell he confessed his guilt, acknowledging that he had committed the crime in the manner proved against him on his trial. It seems to be a general impression that the trial and the extraordinary verdict returned in the case of an individual who was tried at the Central Criminal Court, a short time before Tawell made his first attempt to poison Sarah Hart in the month of September last, both suggested the means used and the hope of escape in the event of detection, from the ap- parent difficulty of establishing to the satisfaction of a jury the commission of the crime. The conviction of Tawell must tend very much to correct the mistaken inferences which might be made from the result of the trial alluded to; and indeed the opinion is not concealed in some of the most able comments upon this trial contained in the public press, that had Baron Parke presided on that trial instead of the judge (now no more) who was then on the bench, that the prisoner would have been convicted, “in which event Tawell might never have been encouraged to his crime, and the unfortunate Sarah Hart might now be living.” The ingenious and eloquent counsel for Tawell was evidently driven to the adoption of the most improbable and extravagant positions and hypotheses in making out a defence for his client; but notwithstanding the tears and eloquence with which these were urged upon the feelings of the jury, the temporary im- pressions they may have produced were immediately dissipated by the clear expositions of the evidence and legal principles of the case by Mr Baron Parke, and the mode in which he pre- sented them to the judgment of the jury. He distinctly laid it down that circumstantial evidence was equally available in cases of poisoning as in other modes of committing murder ; that each step of the evidence might be proved by satisfactory although not by direct or positive evidence. That part of his opinion which referred to the quantity of poison actually found in the stomach, and to the competency of medical witnesses to give an opinion, although that opinion was founded upon the experience of others ; the freedom with which the medical witnesses were allowed to cite cases and authorities
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