Haymarket Affair Digital Collection

Illinois vs. August Spies et al. trial transcript no. 1
Court's instructions to the jury given of its own motion and upon its own volition, 1886 Aug. 19.

Volume O, 41-43, 3 p.

Instructions given to the jury by the court of its own motion and volition include a reminder that if advice and encouragement for murder was given and a murder resulted from this advice, than those who so advised are guilty of murder. To which instructions the defendants excepted.


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And upon the conclusion of the reading of the instructions in behalf of the defendants, which instructions were read after the instructions in behalf of the people had been read, the court of its own motion and upon its own volition gave to the jury the following instruction, to wit:


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The statute requires that instructions by the court to the jury shall be in writing and only relate to the law of the case. The practice under the statute is that the counsel prepare, on each side, a set of instructions, and present them to the court, and if approved, to be read by the court as the law of the case. It may happen by reason of the great number presented and the hurry and confusion of passing upon them in the midst of the trial with a large audience to keep in order, that there may be some apparent inconsistency in them, but if they are carefully scrutinized, such inconsistency will probably disappear--- in any event however the gist and pith of all is, that if advice and encouragement to murder was given: if murder was done in pursuance of and materialy induced by such advice and encouragement; then those who gave such advice and encouragement are guilty of the murder--- unless the evidence, either direct or circumstantial, or both proves the guilt of one or more of the defendants upon this principle, so fully that there is no reasonable doubt of it, your duty to them requires you to acquit them-- if it does so prove then your duty to the State requires you to convict whoever is so proved guilty-- the case of each defendant should be considered with the same care and scrutiny as if he alone were on trial; if a conspiracy having violence and murder as its object is fully proved then the acts and declarations of each conspirator in furtherance of the conspiracy, are the acts and declarations of each one of the conspirators. But the declarations of any conspirator, before or after the 4th of May which are merely narrative as to what had been or would be done and not made to aid in carrying into effect the object of the conspiracy, (Given.)


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are only evidence against the one who made them. What are the facts and what is the truth the jury must determine from the evidence, and from that alone. If there are any unguarded expressions in any of the instructions which seem to assume the existence of any facts, or to be any intimation as to what is proved, all such expressions must be disregarded and the evidence only looked to to determine the facts.


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