39["The Broome Murder", The West Australian, Wednesday 13 December 1905, page 7]

...

MARQUEZ'S POSITION.

STATEMENT BY MR. PURKISS.

When seen yesterday evening by a representative of the "West Australian," Mr. W. M. Purkis?, who defended Pablo Marquez on the occasion of his trial, said that Espada still adhered to his last statement in the course of which he exonerated the former from participation in the crime, for the commission of which the two of them and Charles Hagen are under sentence of death. This statement, he added. was made in circumstances of the most solemn nature, in full knowledge of the seriousness of its import, and in view of the fact that death to him was imminent. It was on all-fours with Marquez's own statement. If Espada's statement were accepted as true it showed a willingness on his part to save a man from the punishment for a crime of which he was innocent. Marquez had all along adhered to his assertion that he was merely an unwilling spectator of the crime, having accompanied Liebglid on an illicit pearl-buying enterprise at his request. The statement of Marquez to Mr. Purkiss occupied about four hours in the telling, and in the course of it he related, said Mr. Purkiss, the whole of his movements and actions from the two days preceding the murder, as well as up to the time the crime was perpetrated on board the Mist. "Every incident he mentioned was corroborated by witnesses called by the Crown. There was nothing unusual in his transactions with Hagen and Espada; they were what had occurred for days and weeks previously. There was an entire absence of evidence which might tend to show concerted action on the part of the three condemned men; indeed, the police-sergeant, with his faculties acute, did not arrest Marquez up to the time of the inquest. As a matter of fact, the reason of his apprehension was a suspicion in the mind of the sergeant that Marquez knew something about the murder, which he might be induced to tell by judicious 'squeezing.'" Mr. Purkiss said that he had put from his mind any feeling of partisanship that may have been engendered by his position as Marquez's advocate, yet he felt very uneasy about him, and that feeling would continue to exist were he executed.

REPORTED CONFLICT OF OPINION. His Excellency the Governor has the prerogative of reprieving a condemned man, even against the advice of his Ministers, yet it is one that is very rarely exercised by the representative of the Crown. Still there are instances on record of such action having been taken. It is reported that there is a conflict of opinion between the Executive Council and His Excellency the Governor in regard to at least one of the three condemned men, and the result of the deliberations of the Executive Council to-day is awaited with unusual interest.