Henry Billings Brown

“ It is to find a verdict of guilty of murder against the defendant. If they are not proven in that way, either one of them, that is, to such a degree of certainty that they come under that legal definition of proof beyond a reasonable doubt,-then your duty will be to acquit the defendant.' As the court charged the jury repeatedly that the crime, and every element thereof, must be made out to their satisfaction beyond a reasonable doubt, it is impossible that they could have been misled by the omission of the qualification suggested. ”

“ As there was abundant evidence in the case, outside of defendant's confession, not only that the man had been murdered, but considerable evidence that he was a white man, we think there was no error committed in the charge that the fact that he was a white man might be shown by the testimony of the defendant, as well as by other means, or by that in connection with other facts and circumstances. The fact that the murdered man was a white man had no bearing upon the question of the corpus delicti, or of the fact that the defendant murdered him, and bore only upon the jurisdiction of the court. ”

“ That the action of the trial court upon an application for a continuance is purely a matter of discretion, and not subject to review by this court, unless it be clearly shown that such discretion has been abused, is settled by too many authorites to be now open to question. ”