Henry Billings Brown

“ There are many circumstances connected with a trial, the pertinency of which a judge who has listened to the testimony, and observed the conduct of the parties and witnesses, is better able to estimate the value of than an appellate court, which is confined in its examination to the very words of the witnesses, perhaps imperfectly taken down by the reporter. ”

“ Just in proportion to the depravity of the mind would a motive be trifling and insignificant which might prompt the commission of a great crime. We can never say the motive was adequate to the offense, for human minds would differ in their ideas of adequacy, according to their own estimate of the enormity of crime, and a virtuous mind would find no motive sufficient to justify the felonious taking of human life.' 'See, also, Shailer v. ”

“ Coe, 115 Mass. 481, 504; Com. v. Pomeroy, 117 Mass. 143; Murphy v. People, 63 N. Y. 590, 594; Kennedy v. People, 39 N. Y. 245; People v. Harris, 136 N. Y. 423, 33 N. E. Rep. 65; Com. v. Abbott, 130 Mass. ”