Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1838-11-21
From the Baltimore Patriot, Of Nov. a.
SENTENCE OF STEWART.

toEN EtNSfs VI Il " AM
The Court on Monday overrule1 the
motion for new trial ia the case OF
William Stewart and he was brought into
Court Yesterday morning, Tuesday, to
receive his sentence. He was placed in
the bar and the following sentence was
pronounced by his Hon. Judge NEsBIr.
You are now brought into Court TO re.
ceive that sentence which the Law impos
es on the crime of which you have been
found guilty. After trial protracted to
the very unusual length of ten days, after
a defence by able Counsel exhibiting un.
exampled patience activity and zeal, du-
ring which every advantage which the
rules of Law would permit was afforded
you and after most patient, deliberate
and impartial Investigation of your case
by Jury OF your country, you have
been found guilty OF murder pcrpetra,ed
on the body Of your own father.
ParrIcide, an offence so horrible and
requiring for its preparation such an Ut.
ter desttuiion ofthe strongest and most
holy Of our affections. that 1t is with diff
Guilty we believe it possible, that such IA
crime could be committed. An offence
to the honor of the state of Maryland, so
Ear as am informed is not known in our
annals of crime.
The testimony was of 81 decisive a
character aud so clearly demonstrated
the deliberate Fermentation with which
this murder was committed, that it would
have justified, and indeed seemed to re.
quire, verdict for murder in the first de-
gree by which you would have forfeited
your he to the offended laws of your
country. But the Jury, Influenced proba-
bly, by some Of those unfounded scrupes,
about the effect OF crcumstantial tes,mo-
ny, however clear and conclusive, have
by what is generally denominated a pous
fraud, saved your life and doomed on to
confinement in the Penitentiary. An
effort has been made by your Counsel not
upon their own responsibility, but us we
understand by your express request to
obtain for you Il new trial. The motion
has been refused by the court upon what
they conceive to be the settled established
rules of law.
If, however, the Court had considered
that they could legally grant you new
trial they would not, with their views of
the conclusive nature of the testimony a.
ganst you, have consented to place your
life in leopard even a: your own request,
when you had been acquitted Of the high.
cts degree of homicide, by the finding Of
which alone your life could be forfeited.
The painful duty now remains for the
Court to impose the sentence of the law
and | will ask you if you have any thing
to say why that sentence should not now
be passed.
The prisoner then passed to thc Court
the following paper containing protesia
ll"n OF his innocence which beng read by
the Court, they said that it contained no
reason why sentence should not now be
passed and they then passed the following
sentence.
That you be confined in the Peniteniiary
until the son Of August 1856, one TRENT
eth part of the confinement, solitary.
Before the Court proceeds to pass upon
me the sentence Of the Law, beg to de.
clare IN its presence and before God and
man that am innocent of the murder of
my Father. The whole course and tenor
OF my life and character,-ihe affection
bore hum while living and the sorrow
with which mourn his cruel and untime.
" death, alike repel the suspicion and
crime for which have been tried, and for
bid that the circumstances by which |
was surrounded ought to be construed in
TO evidence of my guilt. 1t is, however,
the will Of an inscrutable providence. tina,
should be thus situated and here call
t" witness all who are present and this
honourabc Court, which is about to sen.
tence me, that the blood Of my father was
not shed by me, and that am inpocen,
and gulltless Of the dreadful deed. how
with a broken spirit, but conscious limo.
cencc, TO my doom, in fervent hope that
time and an overriding God will make nv
innocence manifest to the world.
WILLIAM STEWART.
EXTRAORDINARY YIELD. -One hun.