The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-07-04
From the C0lasmbas (Miss.) hader.
Sentence Of Death.

Sentence OF Death.
The following is the able and affecting SEN
tence pronounced by Judge Jehu A. Orr, upon
Geo. G. Edwards for killing Patrick Brooks i'll
Macon, in November, 1871. The vivid picture
he draws of the evils of intemperance should
be studied by every young man under whose
eve it falls; and it is the duty of every good
citizen to do all in his power to stay the pro-
gress of curse that is positively doing more
harm than all other vices combined:
SENTENCE.
You have been arraigned for the murder OF
Patrick Brooks. You have been tried 0y q
Jury empaneled whilst you had peremptorT
challenges. You have been prosecuted with
signal ability, and you have had in your de-.
fence, the ingenuity, learning and eloquence OF
the ablest criminal lawyers practlclng in the
Courts of the Southwest Thus assisted, and
after calm deliberation, the jurors have pro-
nounced you guilty.
An appeal was made to me to set aside that
verdict, and grant you new trial. That mo-
ton necessarily brought under my review your
whole case-the facts and the law.
The instructions for the defence were most
skillfully and elaborately prepared by. your
counsel, and were given as requested, without
modification. Those presented and given for
the prosecution, believe to be correct.
Did the facts justify a conviction9
1t appears that in July, 1871, as police off,
Ger of this town, you properly arrested, and
for few hours confined the deceased in prison
for violating the ordinance of the town against
drunkenness. During mis- imprisonment ne
threatened your life. When these threats were
communicated, you seem to have attributed
them to the alterations of drunken mind, and
the next morning, upon your explanation, the
deceased expressed himself satisfied, and at your
request, took another "social glass" Thus it
rested until the 21st of November, without any
hostile demonstration by the deceased. Meet
ing you on the street, and again evidently un-
der the influence of liquor, he used grossly in
sulting language towards you, but there was
nothing in the words or manner indicating All
intention to do you personal violence. You
were still police officer, and had at your COM
mand assistant policemen. You did not order
his arrest, but turned silently and walked into
a retail grocery, the place where drinking
man was most likely to go. The deceased fol-
lowed, a few feet in the rear. You had pre-
pared your pistol, and the attitude you assumed
to his left was peculiar one. The deceased
leaned his elbow upon the end of the counter,
his face resting upon his left hand, and his
right resting on his right hip. He repeated the
insulting words spoken on the street. At this
the keeper of the saloon ordered each of You
from his house, and he and the only other per-
son present stepped towards the door. In an
instant you fired three times in rapid success
sion. The first shot penetrated the brain "cen-
trally'' above the left ear; the second penetra-
ted Centrally" the left side of the abdomen.
The deceased was entirely unarmed
It clearly appears to my mind-that so far
from indicating a present purpose to do you
any violence, the deceased was not looking to-
ward you; that he had either started to leave
the room, or was looking at those who were
leaving; that the extent of his hostility was
the irritating language of liquored brain !;
that he was marked case for the exercise OF
your official authority in confining him until
relieved from the effects of liquor; that you
refused or neglected to do your duty as an off,
Ger. and at your chosen time, when your victim
was not suspecting it, you deliberately shot
him through the brain.
Accepting these as the main facts developed,
I would be recreant to solemn sense OF duty,
were to say the jury erred in their finding.
Insulting language cannot justify the killing OF
any human being.
/ would not wantonly add to the weight that
presses upon your heart, but that the majesty
of the law may be vindicated, and that the inl-
the country from your lamentable experience
may have their due force in arresting such OF
them as are running course of sin and crime,
I desire you to ask yourself, aohat haze 1 done
and auhy did I do itf
Patrick Brook, like yourself, was compara-
lively boy-he was about twenty-three years
of age, whilst you, understand, to be in your
twentieth year. He was given too much to
strong drink. In other respects, he is kindly
spoken Of He had married, and was the faith
or of two children, now unconscious OF their
orphanage, unconscious of a fathers loss; ig-
norant Of his guiding hand yet to learn of the
calamity which has befallen their home; lis
tcning with unappreciative wonder to the wall
ings of their young mother, widowed In her
girlhood His father long since dead, and his
old mother, now nearing the last river, for the
long years of her widowhood had leaned upon
and hoped for him, only as mother can lean
upon and hope for her son. She Is left with
the blistering thought that by your hand her
child "was changed in the twinkling of an eye"
from earth to the bar of his God, without a
prayer for sin unforgiven. The fire has gone
ont ont on that hearthstone. The silver chord be-
tween the grandmother and her tender lambs
has been loosencd.
And is there no sorrow elsewhere2 Did you
think of the parting goodnight under your
fathers roof last Wednesday, after you had
been, by jury of the county, denounced as a
murderer? Have you thought of the bolt, un-
der this sentence, which is to writhe and splin-
ter the hearts of father, mother, brother and
sisters-all on earth who best love you? The
agony of your venerable mother may more
nearly tell the anguish of Patrick Brooks
mother than human speech, and your gray
headed father, if the dead ears of Jarrett Brooks
were quckcned, could with him commune in a
kindred sorrow unknown in the days of child
hood of their boys. What dreary waste all
this world, once SO fascinating, has become to
the families of the Brooks and Edwards
These reflections naturally suggest: Why
did do so? :.
It is not part of the record in this case, it
could not ightfuly have gone there, but it is
in the mind of the Court, that you too have
been given too much to strong drink. The
fatal deed was committed in grocery, and you