Oct 9.
WE Believe that it is felt by many people that an appeal for mercy should be. made on behalf of the young Indian Shagaman H. K. Hoosien, who Was found guilty and sentenced to death last Thursday, on a charge of murdering his -cousin on board the P. & O. S. Macedonia on August 30 last. In-a similar case at Home the following grounds would operate strongly in the direction of a reprieve 1.—Disagreement of the jury at the first trial.
2.—The excellent character of the prisoner hitherto, a fact strongly borne out by witnesses for the prosecution.
3.—The entire absence of any motive for the crime.
4.—The fact that the man of whose murder he has been. found guilty had a relation to him even more than that of a brother. Since their early youth they had been on the most affectionate terms.
5.—The strong probability, if not moral certainty, that the prisoner was under the influence of hashish or some other drug at the time.
6.—His age, the prisoner being only 25 In respect of the drug, at the first trial the accused said that, although he had been in the habit of smoking Indian hemp (or rather one preparation of it) for five years, on the day of the murder he ate as well as smoked it for the first time. His cousin warned him against the consequences of doing so, and accused said that he then went to sleep and remembered nothing till next day. At his second trial, when asked if he could give cause why sentence should not be passed en him, he said, "My Tord, it was the effect of the drug. I could not have known what I was about."
His manner does not seem to have struck the reporters as other than sincere. In respect of the action of Indian hemp we read this in Dr. Bolton's evidence It (the drug) could be eaten smoked, drunk, or injected hypodermically. Its ordinary effect was pleasurable excitement, then lethargy and sleep. Frenzy and moments of violent homicidal mania were common. Excessive doses on people who were addicted to the drug might produce a condition of permanent mania of this kind, but ordinarily the stuff was a depressant. Anyone affected would hardly recover or be absolutely normal within 24 hours.
It appears to follow from this that there is no improbability in man's committing a murder without any. knowledge. of what che was. doing, after eating as well.as smoking the drug. for the first time. "Against. this, we have the learned Judge saying: '"'The jury have returned a verdict in which I concur, and I think they could have come to no other verdict.'' But, he continued, All I have to do, and I have no option but to do it, is to pass this sentence.
Is_it wholly impermissible, in view of all the circumstances of this peculiar case, to read into those last words a disinclination to pass sentence arising from quite other causes than the repugnance natural to a humane man?
Hoosien is very young. He has undergone the horrid ordeal
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.