Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1853-11-30
SENTENCE oF,TRAYER AND wrLLso,

l1arrls, Benz. crawford, > + christian, w
Crawford, Fl H Peck, VIM NJ Tate, James w
Calhoun, James Bell. F F Sterrett, Geo K
Gilmer, ] w Trimble, Thos Eskridge. John
b Eskridge, Andrew T Gilkeson. j w P Alex
ander, Dealins s. Merritt, b Hogshead. VIM
F Smith, James LESLEY, Joseph Long, Civ
ems Fulton, Geo Baylor, Absalom Koiner, ii
McCue, B. Christian, Jos w Bell, G Slower.
STAUNToN, Nov. 2Sth, 1858.
Gentlemen,-I have received your note re-
questing copy ofmy remarks made upon the
occasion of passing sentence of death upon the
culprits Trayer and Wilson to-day, and you say
the request is suggested by desire on the part of
the public see them. In Difference to you and the
public wishes, comply, and place manuscript
copy at your disposal.
| am Gentlemen, with high respect,
Your obedient Servant
LUCAS P. THOMPSON.
E. STRIBLING, Esq, and others.
Andrew II. Trayer and Henry T. Wilson.
On the 4th August last of a Sabbath morning,
rendered memorable for the discovery of and In
tigaation for crime, attention was called to the
fact that the house of VIM. Coleman had been
closed for several days, during which time he had
been seen by no one. Suspicion being awakened
by so unusual acircumstance, the doors were open
ed and there was disclosed to the gaze OF aston
shed and Mortified beholders scene that beggnrs
description, bloody spectacle at which humanity
shudders, the astounding and revolving evidences
of threefold crime-burglary and robbery most
daring and murder most foul, cruel and brutal
A hasty survey of the sickenins scene and brief
investigation into the surrounding circumstances
by the jury of inquest, left room to doubt that
the deed had been perpetrsted on the evening or
the night of the Thursday preceding, the l lth.
alta time when that aged, lonely and inoffenslve
old man was sitting in fancled security IN the
chamber of his own habtatlon and it may be vain
ly indulging in pleasing meditation and grateful
reflections upon, to him. the delusive thought that
our laws, which had kept the word OF promise to
the ear, would not break it to the hopes, OF rem
dering his frail tenement an impregnable castle
aud of shielding his humble domci and its aged
and feeble tenant from all harm with the agls and
panopIy of its protecion-that his house was bur-
glariously entered and plaged, its owner brutality
murdered and his mangled body left wetering in
his blood to rot like the carcass of the beast Of the
field Indignation and horror so natural from such
cause filled all hearts, and not only the sympa
thetc voices of humanity, but general sense of
insecurity the safety of society thus ruhessly as
|
pealed to the officers of justice for the most dill
gent scrutiny and argus eyed vigilance in their
strenuous endeavors to ferret out the offenders and
converted every man into quasi police man or
anxious enquirer and investigator into the question
who could be the author Of so bloody and horrible
deed. Your characters in the first instance
doubtless contributed not little to turn suspicion
nm n YOU. but soon suspicious ipened into proofs,
and in the sequel you were arrested and
CHARGED with the crime, indicted, alTalgned,
tried and found guilty by your consttut onal Fri
ers. Jury o. your peers, free from all exception
No one who hac witnessed your trial and has OBJ
served the exemplary patience, untrlng and anx-
ions attention. and correct demeanor of your jury,
during protracted confinement OF IL days,all the
while attentive listeners OF the accusation and The
defence the evidences for ard sgalnst.and the ell
oquent arguments and commentaries oil able couIi-
sci upon that evidence, can for one moment douot
but that YOU had fair and impartia! trlal-as lar
and impartial as men are capable ofgivlng 10 TEL
low men accused of high crime. If they nave
erred in the performance OF one OF the mos pain D.
full duties that human being can be called on TO
discharge-that of deciding upon the momentous
issue of life or DEATH doubt not the charity OF
your own hearts. though you fall victims to that
error. has already absolved them from intentional
error and placed it to the account of human falli
bilty. If they have erred, it is error incident
to and inseparable from the tribunals Of beings of
finite and allble faculties tribunals, nevertheless,
whose justice can only be rejudged and whose err
rors and defects can only be corrected by the ON
niscient Judge at that grand assze when all secrets
shall be revealed and all the mysteries of human
t,a1sac!on solved. If they have erred whilst all
admit it is an error, if you choose so TO call it,
evil or a wrong ever to be regretted and depured,
vet it is one necessarily incidental to and insepa
rable from the nature of man, the civil state, and
government of laws, against which it is impos
sible to provide any inallible safeguard; beca1se
the most unimpeached and unmpeachable positive
and direct evidence may be peIjured and the most
conclusive circumstantial evidence may mislead
and conduct to false conclusions. There is posi-
bility of innocence in every case ever brought be-
fore criminal tribunal-therefore innocent men
have been convicted and must continue to be con-
victed to the end of time, but it is consolatory to
know that the instances have been rare. 1t is a
case in which we are compelled to choose between
evis-the lesser, of sometimes convctng an in
nocent man upon false testimony or upon the most
conclusive 4crcumstantial evidence; and that far
greater one, of surenderng our judgments or rath-
or overanctious fears to universal skepticism,
WHICH a
possibility of innocence and proclaim impunity to
all offenders. -
Whether the jury gave full credit to the testi-
mony of the direct and positive eye and ear wit
ness Perkins, corroborated by its own detail of col
lateral circumstances and facts. found to be true
in every particular after searching cross exami-
nation proving the offence out and ut,wthout the
aid of the independent circumstantial evidence,
or whether discreditng him and wholly rejecting
his testimony they based their finding upon the
circumstsntial evidence alone; or whether their
verdict was the combined result of the positive
testimony aided and corroborated by the circum-
stantial evidence, neither know nor will pretend
| to conjecture. OF this however | cannot but feel
assured that it is an honest verdict extorted from
the jury no doubt against their will and against
those tender and compassionate feelings, which
jures always feel for the criminal however much
they may abhor the crime, by high and i'm
perative sense of duty and the solemn obliga-
ton of their oaths. Nay more, it is not only an
honest but a legal verdict, with which have no
legal right to interfere, to set aside or annul and
1 which as Juoge am bound to acquiesce in, to
sanction and approve, whatever might have been
nv individual opinion had been sitting IN your
iry as to the credibility of Perkins, or the suffi
cheney of the independent circumstantal evidence,
or the combined effect of both taken in connection
and in aid and confederation of each other 1t is
the peculiar province of the jury to pass upon the
credit of witnesses, the weight of testimony, and
the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence to con-
vct, and court has no right to disturb their ver-
dict merely because the Judge if sitting as jul
ror would have rendered different verdict upon
the evidence. Having said that as Judge am
bound to give effect to the verdict, do not feel it
incumbent upon me to express any extra Judicial
nninion as to how should have decided the issue