The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-22 00:00:00

THE RELEASE OF WILLIAM
.HABRON,

William Habron, who was wrongfully convicted of
the Whalley Range murder, which Peace confessed to
have committed, was discharged from Portland Prison
on Tuesday. Habron, who knew nothing of the free par-
don granted to him, was on Tuesday morning informed
that he was about to be removed, with two other
convicts about to be liberated. He was prepared
for the journey, and set off for Millbank. By orders
from the Home Office no communication was made to
him respecting the cause of his removal, and the whole
proceedings were kept secret. Habron did not seem
excited. The two officers who travelled with him were
ordered
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tion.

It had been arranged that Mr. Deakin, the employer
of the three Habrons, who has all through William's
severe ordeal neither flinched in his belief in his inno-
cence nor relaxed in his endeavours to precure his
release, should come up from Manchester, meet
Habron at Millbank, and take him under his charge
to his relations in Ireland. Mr. Deakin was accord-
ingly waiting at Millbank to receive him when he
arrived.

On Habron's arrival at Millbank, the fact that he
had been granted a free pardon was communicated to
him, together with a statement of the reasons which
had actuated the Home Secretary in recommending it.
Beyond hearing from a fellow-prisoner at Portland,
who was recently admitted, that Peace had confessed
the Whalley Range murder, this was the first and only
intimation of what had been done in reference to his
case that the poor fellow had received.
The first thing William Hebron said to Mr. Deakin
in the cell at Millbank when he was able to speak,
which for some minutes he could not do, was to
express his thankfulness that at last justice had been
done to him, and he added, "You know, master,
that we never disgraced you." He was so much over-
come by the news that he was unable to take off
his prison dress and put on ordinary clothes, and had
to be assisted by Mr. Deakin. As soon as the neces-
sary formalities had been completed Mr. Deakin and
Hebron left the gaol. During the afternoon they took
train for Manchester, where they arrived late on Tues-
day night, Habron being taken to the house of Mr.
Deakin's brother, where the two brothers, John and
Frank Habron were waiting. The meeting between
the three brothers was a very affecting one.
The poor fellow seemed to be in good health, but
showed in his features some traces of the Buffering he
has undergone.

Hebron has stated that after the sentence of deathhe
suffered intense mental agony, although he was home
up by a consciousness of his innocence, and hoped
that his life might be spared, and that he would
ultimately be proved to the world to be guiltless.
"In William Hebron, at least," (says the Daily
News) "there is a great fund of simple faith and
stedfastness. 'I never believed,' he often repeats,
that I could be brought in guilty, and when
I was condemned I felt sure I could not be
hanged, for, as I told the priest, God knows, you
know, and I know that I am innocent of this crime,
and an innocent man will never be allowed to suffer
for the guilty.' It was probably this steady faith in
justice being ultimately done that sustained the poor
young fellow's heart and brain for the ten weeks
during which he lay under sentence of death, a trial
severe enough to crack the strongest nerves, and how
much more terrible to a lad. of eighteen ! "—Habron's
respite, which he received about three weeks after
he was sentenced, was a great relief to him, but he
continued to feel great anxiety as to what might be
his fate-until he was informed that his sentence of
death had been commuted to penal servitude for life.
After his removal to Portland he continued to hope
that his innocence might be ultimately declared,
and that enabled him to bear with some com-
posure his confinement as a convict.