29 F. Cas. 1330 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut | 1799
expressed doubts as to the legal operation of the evidence: and gave it ns his opinion, that the evidence, and the operation of law thereon, be left to the consideration of the jury.
the Chief Justice of
The cause and the evidence were accordingly committed to the jury. The jury soon agreed on a. verdict, and found the prisoner guilty. The court sentenced him to pay a fine' of one thousand dollars, and to suffer four months imprisonment.
The defendant was also indicted before the court, for having on the 23d of September, 1797, in a hostile manner, with a privateer commissioned by the French republic, attacked and captured a British ship and crew on the high seas, contrary to the twenty-first article of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain, said Williams being then a citizen of the United States, the French republic being then at war with the king of Great Britain, and said king being in amity with the United States. Williams’ de-fence on the first indictment being of no avail, and having no other defence to this, he pleaded guilty. The court sentenced him to pay a fine of one thousand dollars, and to suffer a further imprisonment of four months.