John Mitchel - Trial and Sentence

Trial and Sentence

The Commission Court opened on 20 May, and Baron Lefroy proceeded to charge the grand jury. On Monday the foreman handed down a true bill against Mitchel. The Clerk of the Crown asked for what the bill was. To illustrate the rapidity with which the whole case was despatched; and the absolute indifference "whether there was justice done or not," P.A. Sillard, one of Mitchel's biographers, quoted from the speech of Mitchel's defence Council Robert Holms, "The foreman of the Grand Jury, gentlemen, having been asked if the jury had found bills against the prisoner—replied— 'Oh yes, we find him guilty of sedition.' 'Gentlemen,' said the officer of the court, 'he is not indicted for sedition.' 'Well,' said the fore man, 'we find him guilty of treason.' 'But, gentlemen,' again interrupted the officer, 'the charge against Mr Mitchel is for felony.' 'Oh, no matter!' said the foreman, 'sedition, treason, or felony, it is all the same to us." Sillard concluded, "Justice! the thing is not to be had in British law courts. The petty jury having been sworn, the remaining portion of this awful scene was very quickly gone through."

The Attorney-General stated the case and endeavoured to defend himself against the accusation of having tampered with the jury-list. The witnesses were then examined, and at 12.15pm, Robert Holmes, a veteran Republican of '98, and the brother-in-law of Robert Emmet, rose to address the jury on behalf of the prisoner. This was to be his last ever speech, and in it took the views of the prisoner and made them his own. It was according to Sillard "the grand old Republican of '98 resolved to attest the justice of the Republican of a later day, and hurl defiance in the face of English law."

(For the full text of the speech see here.)

Holmes having concluded his speech, counsel for the Crown, Mr Henn, replied. Judge Moore then charged the jury, who retired to consider their verdict, which after some time they brought in and handed down to the clerk of the Crown. That verdict was "Guilty."

On the following morning, the clerk of the Crown went through formality of asking if Mitchel had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him. Mitchel said: "I have to say that I have been found guilty by a packed jury—by the jury of a partisan sheriff—by a jury not empanelled even according to the law of England. That is the reason I object to the sentence being passed upon me."

Baron Lefroy then proceeded to pass sentence. He denied that the jury had been packed, reiterated the offences mentioned in the indictment, and concluded by saying:— "I wish you to understand that we have, with the utmost anxiety, and with a view to come to a decision upon the measure of punishment which it would be our duty to impose, postponed the passing of sentence upon you till this morning. We have with the utmost deliberation, examined the matter, with an anxiety to duly discharge the duty which we owe on all hands— the duty which we owe the prisoner of not meting out punishment beyond the just measure of the offence, and the duty we owe to the public that the degree of punishment will be such as to carry out the object of all punishment, which is not the mere infliction of the penalty upon the person convicted, but the prevention of crime—that that punishment should carry with it a security to the country, as far as possible, that one who has offended so perseveringly—that so deliberate a violator of the law shall not be permitted to continue his course of conduct to the disturbance of its peace and prosperity. We had to consider all this—to look at the magnitude of the crime, and to look also at the consideration that if this were not the first case brought under the Act, our duty might have obliged us to carry out the penalty it awards to the utmost extent; but taking into consideration that this is the first conviction under the Act—though the offence has been as clearly proved as any offence of the kind could be—the sentence of the court is that you, John Mitchel, be transported beyond the seas for the term of fourteen years."

An eruption of indignation followed and as soon as silence had been restored, Mitchel delivered his opinion.