It was fortunate for Edmund Galley that a number of young barristers including the future lord chief justice Alexander Cockburn were in court at Exeter Assizes in 1836 to watch his trial for the murder of a local farmer who had been robbed and killed at Moretonhampstead. The evidence against him was thin, and the barristers commissioned a shorthand writer to investigate Galley’s alibi that he had been in Kent.
They also persuaded Mr Justice Williams to respite the case for further enquiries. Meanwhile, Galley’s co-defendant Oliver continued to maintain that his co-robber was a John Longley, who had already been transported.
The home secretary appointed Sir Frederick Roe, then the chief magistrate at Bow Street, to make further enquiries. Galley said that at the time of the murder he had been at a fair in Dartford, Kent when, in some brawl, a stall was overturned and he helped the stall owner to pick up his wares. Witnesses confirmed the incident and later identified Galley.
Lord chief justice Baron Denman would have nothing of Roe’s inquiry. However the home secretary commuted the death sentence to transportation, saying there was doubt about who had struck the fatal blow.
Galley did well in Australia. Given a conditional pardon and a ticket of leave in 1839, he became a shepherd. In 1877 he wrote to the home secretary petitioning for a full pardon. The letter appeared in the Western Mail and Cockburn, now the lord chief justice, wrote to the home secretary saying that Williams had not properly directed the jury and that Roe had been completely satisfied with Galley’s alibi.
A year later the Home Office sent Cockburn a dusty reply. The verdict must stand. Then Sir John Eardley-Wilmot took the matter up in parliament complaining how shabbily the lord chief justice – if not Galley – had been treated. The campaign took wing and in 1879 the home secretary announced a free pardon.
Two years later the Home Office granted the 83-year-old Galley £1,000 compensation.
James Morton is a writer and former criminal defence solicitor
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