Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-02-18
EVENING STAR.
Remarkable Cases. - Criminals who have
Returned to Life after Exscution

| hemar kROie eases. - Criminals who have
Returned to Life after Execution.
The following singular circumstance is re.
corded by DR.. Plot, in his Natural History of
Oxfordshire
In the year 1850, Anne Green, q servant of
Sir ThCmss Read, was tried for the murder of
her newborn child, and found guilty. She
was executed IN the court yard at Oxford, and
hung about half an hour. On being cut down
she was put into a coffin and brought away to
house to be disSected where, when they
opened the coffin, notwithstanding the rope
remained unloosed and straight about ber
neck, they perceived her breast TO rise where
upon enc Nassau, q tailor, intending only an
act Of charity, set his foot upon her and, as
some say, one Drum, a soldier, again struck
her with the butt end of bis musket Notwith-
standing all which, when the learned and
| eminent Sir VIM Perry, ancestor Of the pres
ent Marquis Of Lsnsdowue, then Professor Of
Anatomy ia the University, DIR Wallis and
DR.. Clark, then President of MagdaIen Col
lege, and Vice Chancellor of the University.
| came to prepare the body for dissection, they
perceived some small rattling in her throat :;
thereupon desisting from their former purpose,
they presently used means for her recovery
| by opening vein laying her in a warm bed
| and also using divers remedies respecting her
senseless, insomuch that within fourteen hours
she began to speak, and the next day talked
L
of her recovering the officers concer ned in her
execution would needs have had her away
| again, TO have completed it on her; but by
the mediation Of the worthy doctors and scms
other friends with the then Governor of the
city-ColOnel Kelsey-there was a guard put
upon her from all further disturbance, unit!
| they had sued out her pardon from the Gov
ernment. Much doubt, indeed, arose as to her
actual guilt. Crowds of people in the mean
time came to see her, and many asserted that
it must be the providence of God, who would
| thus assert her Innocence.
After some time, Dr. Petty, hearing that she
diScOursed with these about her, and suspect
ing that the women might suggest unto her to
relate something Of strange visions and appa-
| rltiOnS she had seen during the time she APP
peared 70 be dead (which they had already
begun to do, telling that she said she had been
in Il fine green meadow, having a river run
ming round it, and all things there glittered
like silver and gold, he caused all to depart
from the room but the gentlemen of the facul-
ty who were to have been at the dissection,
| and asked her concerning her sense and ap-
| prehensions during the time she was hanged
| To which she answered, that she neither re-
| membered how the fetters were knocked of
how she went ont of the prison; when she was
| turned off the ladder; whether any psalm was
| sung or not nor was she sensible of any pain
that she could remember. She came to herself
| as if she had awakened out of sleep, not re-
covering the use Of her speech by slow de-
| grees, but in a manner altogether, beginning
| to speak just where she left of on the gallcws.
| Being thus at length perfectly recovered,
after thanks given to God and the persons in
strumental in bringing her to life. and pro.
| curing her an immunity from farther punish
ment, she retired into the country to her
friends at Steeple Barton, where she was af-
| terwards married, and lived in good repute
amongst her Heighbors, having three children,
| and not dying till 1859.
| The following account OF tne case Of a girl
| who was wrongly executed in l760 is given by
| a celebrated French author, as an instance Of
| the Injustice which was often committed by the
| equivOcal mode of trial then used in France
| About seventeen years since, young peas
| ant girl was placed at Paris in the service of
| a man who, smitten with her beauty, tried TO
| inveigle her but she was virtuous, and re-
sisted. The prudence of this girl irritated
the master, and he determined on revenge.
| He secretly conveyed into her box many
| things belonging to him, marked with his
1 name. He then exclaimed that he was reb
| bed, called in a cOmmissaire, "a ministerial
| officer Of justice,D and made his deposition.
The girls box was searched, and the things
| were discovered. The unhappy servant was
| imprisoned.
| She defended herself only by her tears; she
had no evidence to prove that she did not put
| the property in the box and her only answer
/
cent. The judges had no suspicion of the de-
| pravity of the accuser, whose station was re.
| spect4ble, and they administered the law in
4 all its rigor. The innocent girl was con-
demned 10 be hanged. The dreadful cfice
| was Intellectually performed, as it was the first
| attempt of the son Of the chief executioner.
| A surgeon had purchased the body for dissec
! ton, and it was conveyed to his house. On
/ that evening, being about to open the head,
/ he perceived a gentle warmth about the body
The dissecting knife fell from his hand, and
| he placed in a bed her whom he was about TO
dissect.
His efforts to restore her to life were effec-
| tual, and at the same time he sent for n cer
| gymen on whose discretion and experience he
4 could depend, in order 10 consult with him on
| this strange event, as we'll as 10 have him for
| witness to restoration. The moment the un-
| fortunate girl opened her eyes, she believed
| herself in the other world, and perceiving the
| figure of the priest, who had a marked and
| majestic countenance, she joined her hands
| tremblingly and exclaimed " Eternal Father,
/ you know my innocence, have pity on me 20
In this manner she continued to invoke the
ecclesiastic. believing in her simplicity, that
| she beheld her God. They were long in per-
| suading her that she was not dead-so much
had the idea of the punishment and Of death
! possessed her imagination.
| The girl having returned to life and health,
| she retired TO hide herself in a distant VIII
lsge, fearing to meet the Judges or the officers,
| who, with the dreadful tree necessarily
haunted her imagination. The accuser re-
| manned unpunished, because his crime, al
though manifested by two individual wit
I nesses, was not clear to the eye Ok the law
| The people subsequently, became aes uainted
with the resurrection Of this girl, and loaded
| with reproaches the author OF her misery.
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L UIRGINIA--Tlo hOarz