South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1835-05-23
Sentence of Death.
From the Fredericksburg Arena,

\ LOui tiG
Sentence of Death was, on Friday III
gath ult, pronounced by Judge LoMAx
on Thomas Jones, in Nestmoreland cir
cult court, for HE murder of his Wife, OF
the 25th of March. The substance of tn,
sentence is published at the earnest soil
citation of many who heard ii pronounc,
ed, and who suggested that the publica.
ton might grately promote the cause o
Temperance:
SENTENCE OF DEATH.
THOMAS JONES:
You have been convicted of the
murder ofyour wife, by excessive beat.
ing. This is regarded as one of the
most heinous offences which can be
committed, end the Law denounces a.
gainst il its severes, sentence. That
sentence, it is now my painful duty,
as the minister of the law, to pro-
nounce. But before discharge it,
cannot refrain from making some OBJ
servsions suggested by yoor situation ;
not made, | assure you, in eny spir,
OF reproacb, but of the deepest con-
misseration and concern for your IN.
happy fate: and they are made with a
hope that they may not be wholly IN.
profitable to yourself or to others.
1t has, no doubt, occurred 10 you, in
all the bitterness of grief, that the last
month has been most eventful in your
destinies. One month ago you were
10 possession of most Of those means,
which, when rightly improved, give
assurance. in your humble sphere of
life, Of usefulness, respectabiity and
happiness. Your humble home might
have been consecra,ed to conjugal sf.
lection, TO domestic peace and felicity.
Bot your own hand converted it into
the charnel house of your wife-and
you fed in guilt aud horror frem it's
blood "bespaltered" walls-and you
left her covered with bruises, speech
less, senseless, and weltering in her
gore. Your home, with all the com.
forts which you might have there Sc
cured, has been exchanged for the
gloom of Jail !; and you must have
been more than man-more than fend,
If its solitude has not been embittered
by agonies ofremorse and horror unut-
terable. You have passed through all
the agi,ating hopes and fears Of an ig.
nominious trial-and just and law
full conviction places you now upon
the brink Of an abyss, indescribably
awful and tremendous. Before the
hand of Spring shall drop a blade OF
verdure upon the fresh grave of your
murdered wife, your body too will
have been deposited in the silent earth.
What demon was it, that entered in.
to your dwelling, fury spreading around
him, and blasting with such terrific ru-
in and desolaiion its wretched inmates?
Your defence sought to mitigate, and
even to excuse, your crime, upon the
plea of insanity. produced by the in
temperate use of ardent spirits: And
it is vainly hoped, that the guilt of this
murder would be overlooked by the
Law, in its benignity to mental mfr.
nifty. II was indeed most clear and
indisputable, upon your trial, that
drunkenness, inflaming the constitu.
tional malignancy Of your passions, in.
stigated the enactment of this shocking
tragedy /; and that without the drunk
enness, this crime would never have
baen perpetraled. But it was also most
clear that j, was drunkenness, which
did not iucapacitate you to perpetrate
the murder by "wiful deliberate and
premeditated killing" Drink then is
The proven and acknowledged cause
of the preparation of this most cruel,
and inhuman murder. 1t was but this
day week, that in the adjoining county
of this circuit, an unhappy wretch was
condemned TO die for an offence origi-
mating in Drink-and now it is again
exhibited as the abominable cause of
the most airocious crime that can shock
the heart of man.
Has there been, amongst the crowd
which has gathered in this Hall, pend
ing this trial, one individual not habit.
mated to the stric,est sobriety, and has
he been deaf to the suggestion, which
ysur case mus. have whispered to him
in IFS progress, that his condition might
be soon like yours 7 And was his con.
science not startled with terror and dis
may a, his own periIous state If he
hugs himself in the false security, that
he has the power TO stop short of tha,
inordinate excess, which infames the