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dying deposition chal
lenged.
A CONVICTION CONFIRMED.
SYDNEi Fridav.
The Federal High Court delivered a judg
ment of considerable importance vpRtPvda-
in the case in which the State Attorney-
General appealed against the decision o£
the State Full Court in quashing the con-
viction ot .Margaret Jackson, who had
been found guilty of manslaughter and
sentenced to six years' imprisonment. The
Full Court had quashed the conviction on
the ground that the dying depositions of
Mrs. Hanlon were wrongly admitted, inas
much as they did not contain a record of
the fact that on one occasion when mak
ing her statement deceased said. "I cannot
recollect" or "I cannot remember." In
the opinion of the Full Court the whole
question as to the circumstances in which
the crime -was said to have been committed
turned upon the accuracy of deponent's
memory, and if at the time she had to
confess that "she could not remember" it
was an important fact that should have
appeared in the depositions, and thus been
before the jury.
The Chief Justice, in delivering judg
ment, confined himself to the question
whether the ' deposition was inadmissible
because the witness had said something
which had not been recorded. His Honor
said that was manifestly an important
question, because if the admissibility ol
a deposition in a preliminary charge turned
upon the exact accuracy of the person who
recorded it, in every case evidence might
be brought that something had been left
out which was considered material That
being the case, the judge at the trial would
have to determine how much had heen
left out. and to what extent it was mate
rial. All such questions, however, were
excluded by the plain words of the
statute.
Their Honors were unanimously of the
opinion that the Full Court was in error
in setting aside the sentence, and con-
finned tie conviction. Mrs. Jackson, who
had been released from gaol. w01 asm be
rearrested,
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