People v. Cunningham

6 Park. Cr. 398
CourtCourt Of Oyer And Terminer New York
DecidedMay 15, 1857
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 6 Park. Cr. 398 (People v. Cunningham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court Of Oyer And Terminer New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Cunningham, 6 Park. Cr. 398 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1857).

Opinion

Out of a panel of five hundred jurors summoned, most of whom were challenged for principal cause and to the favor, and set aside, a jury was obtained and sworn.

On the second day, A. OaJcey Hall, the district attorney, opened the case for the prosecution, after which the following testimony was taken.

The first witness called for the prosecution was Dr. J. W. Francis, who was examined by Mr. Hall, and testified as follows:

I was born in the city of New York, and am sixty-seven years of age; I have been in the practice of physic forty-seven years, and have also been engaged, during a considerable portion of that time, as a professor of medical jurisprudence in the college; I have been residing in Bond street, near Broadway, for some twenty years; oh the morning of Saturday, the 31st of January, I think, I was called into the house No 31 Bond street, at ten o’clock, or ten minutes past ten o’clock; I accompanied the messenger, whom I did not know, to that house, passed through the front door, ascended the first and second flights of stairs into the second story back room, which was the dentistry office of Dr. Burdell; as I was ascending the stairs I asked [392]*392if the person was very ill; the messenger told me he was dead, and they wanted to know the cause of his death; there was a police officer at the door, and he let me in; the messenger stood partially outside as I entered the room, which' I did carelessly; I stepped into blood; there was a large quantity of clotted blood on the floor; casting a glance downwards I saw a large, stout, strong, muscular body, seemingly in great health, lying dead on the floor; a gentleman in the room, I don’t know who he was, told me he had turned" the body over, but had let it lie in the same place in which he first saw it; the face was now upward; the clothing of the body seemed to be very tenaciously wrapped around it, and upon feeling it I found it a mass of soaked linen and clothing super-saturated with blood; between the body and the wall was a large mass of clots of blood, which might have been forming for some four or five or six hours, and some of which might have weighed half a pound, and some a pound and a half; the bood had coagulated and laid there; one of the men asked me to move around cautiously, for there was a good deal of blood about there; I cast a glance at the countenance of the corpse; I was not familiar with Dr. Burdell, but had seen him one hundred times probably; the coroner came up to me and told me to wait a few moments, as Dr. McKnight, his assistant, was in the next room and would be ready in a few moments, having a case with some instruments or probes, to make a thorough examination of the body; in a few moments Dr. McKnight entered; we approached the body, took a look at the countenance, and found it to be a surcharged, plethoric, full' distended face, with the eyes obtrusive, with the mouth firmly drawn together, and with the tongue protruded between the teeth; it looked at that moment as though the man had died of a convulsion; in examining farther, I perceived a line sufficiently distinct passing around the front part of the neck; but inasmuch as the body was of a full habit, [393]*393and the mark of the application of a ligature could be there but a short time, it would naturally be a little evanescent; after a while the body would react and absorption would set in, so that the mark would not be so distinct; but still there was a strong mark, which others saw as well as myself, though no ligature could be seen; I immediately thought of that popular idea of garroting, but said nothing particular about it; Dr. McKnight being now ready with his instruments, we turned the face of the corpse a little about towards the right side, and I observed under the angle of the ear and jaw, on the left side, a wound; on being probed it was found to extend nearly the whole length through the neck; it allowed the probe being extended so far that we put it down to six or seven inches; on examination we discovered that it had divided the carotid artery and the great vessels of the neck. We found on the cheek—the malar bone—on the left side, a wound that went down and inwardly into the face; on the one side there was one distinctly marked; on the left side there was an abrasion; lower down on the right side, near the clavicle, was a wound which extended directly into the thorax some six or seven inches, and running into the internal portion of the chest; on the right arm was a transverse wound, pretty low down; some two inches or so below, on the left arm, near what is called the deltoid muscle, where the swell is, there was a wound that went down four or five inches; there was another wound on the same arm, lower down, that went in two or three inches; the clothes being removed from the body, and the abdominal region and trunk all exposed, it was immediately apparent how many additional wounds had been received. There was one on the left side, between the fourth and fifth ribs, which extended some six or seven inehes, perhaps seven and a half; about two inches lower down there was another wound that ran upward in the region of the heart, and which, according to an examination subsequently made by [394]*394others, proved to be in.the auricle of the heart; there were two or three wounds in the abdomen, near the region of the stomach, in the abdominal viscera, that extended inwards, I should say, some four or five inches; there was another wound near what is called the margin of the hip, that rah inwardly and outwardly on the left side; there were altogether fifteen wounds; but there is one other wound yet to be* mentioned of great importance, and that was a wound under the left auxiliary or arm-pit, which extended in many inches, some six or seven; the course of that wound in the arm was directly inward and down towards the thorax; on examining the body w;e did riot see anything particularly worthy of remark more than what I have, mentioned to you; the mark of the ligature about the neck was rather heavy; I suppose it was about a third of an inch broad, or a little more perhaps; some parts of it appeared to be more distinct than others; we did not observe any marks on the back part of- the head; • it appeared a little more distinct on one side, and seemed as though the head had been drawn back; many of these wounds might, in their nature, have been fatal; I should suppose the wound under the arm was aimed at a vital part; when that wound was received undoubtedly the arm must have been raiaed; the wound was rather downward; the wound about the fourth and fifth ribs ran upward; the wound two inches or so below that ran forward, so that the cavity of the heart and apex of the heart were reached by two different processes; three of those wounds in the abdomen in front looked like a kind of helter-skelter driving without any special object; it is impossible to decide whether the wound in the carotid artery or that in the heart was given first; if the wound had been first made in the heart, a spout of blood would have followed the second wound, which was in the carotid artery. After the wound in the artery death would ensue in perhaps some two or three or four or five minutes; as to the wound in the heart, [395]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
6 Park. Cr. 398, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-cunningham-nyoytermct-1857.