The prosecution is conducted by an officer
analogous to our attorney-general, or by his substitute; and is
defended by any advocate of the court whom he may employ for the
purpose. The appreciation of the credibility of testimony, the
greater or lesser value of circumstantial evidence, the application
and interpretation of the law, and the award of sentence, remain
with the judges, subject to appeal to a higher court. Moreover, in
the present case, the inquiry assumed more of the form of a general
attempt to ascertain the solution of an unexplained mystery, than
would have been compatible with the forms of our criminal courts,
inasmuch as there were two prisoners to be tried for the crime, whom
no theory of the circumstances had suggested to be accomplices, and
the conviction of either of whom, according to the hypothesis which
had been started, involved the absolution of the other.
The judicial oath is administered not as with us, but by requiring
the accused person, or the witness, to assert that he is speaking the
truth, while placing the extended hand on a carved representation of
the crucified Redeemer. And there can be no doubt that this ceremony
has a very strong effect on the imagination and nervous system among
the easily moved races of the south. Many a crime has been avowed,
because the paralyzed lips of the criminal were absolutely incapable
of pronouncing the lie he fully purposed to speak, while he thus
openly appealed to the material figure which had the power of
enabling the sluggish southern imagination to realize the presence
of the Creator.
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