Jury Instructions, 30 May 1845 [State of Illinois v. Williams et al.]
Source Note
Jury Instructions, [, Hancock Co., IL, 30 May 1845], State of IL v. Williams et al. (Hancock Co., IL, Circuit Court 1845); unidentified handwriting; three pages; microfilm 1,521,604 at FHL. Includes docket.
The Court is asked to instruct the jury for the Defendants that unless the circumstances and facts proven in this case satisfy them as fully and completely of the guilt of the Defendants, as they would have been satisfied by the positive evidence of eye witnesses, they will find the Defendants not guilty
That if all the facts and circumstances which the evidence in this case tends to prove may be true, and still the murder have been committed by other persons than the Defts, and without the agency of the Defendants, that then it will be the duty of the jury to find the Defendants not guilty.
That unless the evidence is of such a character as to establish conclusively the guilt of the Defendants, and to show that the murder must have been committed by them, and to satisfy the minds of the jury beyond all reasonable doubt that the murder could not have been committed by other persons than the Defendants, and without the agency of the Defendants, that then they will find the Defts not guilty
That <where the evidence is circumstantial,> admitting all to be proven which the evidence tends to prove, if then the jury can make any supposition consistent with the facts, by which the murder might have been committed without the agency of the Defendants that then it will be their duty to make that supposition, and to find the Defendants not guilty. [p. [1]]