Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 1).pdf/71

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DAKOTA v. O'HARE.
47

at the same time, if it is possible, to reform the man. Undoubtedly, it was the law of the jurisdiction that convicted this man to protect society, as to that crime; and it was, at the same time, its object to reform him. lt is for you to say, under his history, so far as you know it, whether or not he has convinced you that one object of the law has been gained in his reformation, or whether it has had no effect, and whether or not he is unworthy of belief. The reason I speak of this more particularly at this time is as bearing on the character and weight of his testimony, and also that of another witness, of which I shall now speak. I allude to the witness Brown. Here is a man who comes into court; says that he has been charged with the crime of murder in a foreign jurisdiction—in the state of Minnesota; that he had been convicted of murder and that he has been sentenced to death. The object of the law in convicting men and making them suffer the death penalty, is to protect society, and for the reason that there is no further need of trying tu reform them; that they are so far gone that, for the protection of society, they should be executed. Hence the law steps in and says that, if they commit certain crimes, death shall follow. I call your attention to that for the purpose of assisting you in weighing the testimony of the man Brown, in determining whether or not the testimony of a man who is convicted of murder—a man whois under sentence of death—is of such a character and such a kind as to invite your credit. In order to so determine, you may consider whether he has shown any signs of penitence, any signs of humiliation, any signs of obedience to law and order, or whether his testimony is brazen, bold effrontery, for the purpose of screening another, or for the purpose of adding one more crime to the list of those he has already committed. I say, these are circumstances for you to take into consideration. I invite your attention to them simply as circumstances that you have a right to take into consideration and view in weighing his testimony. Then, after you have viewed it in the situation in which it is placed before you, if it is entitled to credit, you have a right to credit it all. You have a right to believe every word this man Brown has spoken. You have a right to discredit it. You have a right to treat that witness as he stands, in the eyes of the law, before you, in his true