Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1873-07-16
Yalworth's Sentence.

| W8lWOIt4'S OcutCuCCs
The jury found WAlworth guilty o
murder in the second degree. Judg
Davis passed sentence as follows:
Walworth, have never been calle'
upon in my life to perform a more pain
full duty than the one which devolve
upon me now After trial. in whicl
you have had the bene6: of counsel no
surpassed, if equaled, in ability and learn
ing, and of jury selected substantiall,
by yourself, you have been convicted o
the crime of murder in the second degree
The punishment of that crime is fixet
by statute. No discretion is left to tn
court. 1t is severe, but a. the cour
deems your case. it is none too severe
1t separates you from your friends ant
your family. and consigns you for life t.
the State prison, from which you prob
ably can have no hope Of escape, unless
possibly. at some future day, through
executive clemency. The evidence il
your case, in my judgment. fully justified
the verdict which has been rendered
against you. and l have fearful doubt.
that it could not have justified verdict
of murder in the first degree. for canno,
conceive what motives yoa could have
had in preparing yourself as you did
with pistol loaded, coming to New
York, seeking an interview with your
father. and almost Immediately shooting
him down except upon the idea that you
had deliberately determined that his life
should be terminated by your hand. /
hope. however, that the Searcher of all
hearts can perceive from your conduct
that you were not animated by that pre-
meditation and deliberation that the
statute now requires to constitute the
crime in the first degree The duty I
am to perform is rendered doubly pain
full by the fact that you belong to fam
lily honored and distinguished both in the
civil and military annals of your coun-
try. Your grandfather. on the one hand,
was, as has been truly said by your
counsel, for a long time the chief equity
judge Of this great State, and he left a
record for purity and integrity and for all
the private virtues that adorn and elevate
man second to none who have attained
so high station. A grandfather on the
mothers side fell nobly lighting for his
country on the field of battle, and left a
record of which all of bis descendants
may well be proud. It is with grief that
l feel bound to express my sorrow that
the memory of those great ancestors
should not have restrained you from the
commission of such crime as that of
which yon are convicted Your poor
mother had indeed cause to regret her
relations to the father you have slain /;
you, also. undoubtedly had great cause
TO feel not aggrieved merely, but asham
ed and indignant at the long course Of
outrages toward her and his family but
bad as he was, you were not to be the
avenger of those wrongs He had done
nothing to forfeit his life even to the laws
of his country, and least of all had he
done anything to forfeit his life at the
hands of bis own and eldest son, When
l look back upon that moment when you
constituted yourself his executioner and
slew him in that room with no one pres
ent but yourselves. cannot bu. feel that
that death must have been to him more
terrible than thousand deaths in any
other form. Called by you to your
presence apparently for the purpose of a
peaceful interview to settle family diff
culties /; invited to a seat in your room,
and apparently almost instantly confron
ted with a weapon of death in his own
sons hands, what thoughts must have
rushed on him at that moment when he
found that the person whom he expected
had come to him for the purpose of
peaceful arrangement : what thoughts,
what terrible thoughts must have rushed
upon him when he received the leaden
messenger of death in his bosom from
the hands Of his eldest boy. shudder
when l think of it, and l think you
ought to devote your whole life to a re
pentance such as God only can accept
for so horrible a deed. The sentence of
the court is, that you be imprisoned in
the State prison at Sing Sing, at hard Ia
Dor, for the full term Of your natural life
TRAGEDY IN BRADPoRD.-Onth the 5th
instant, little girl eight years old, nam
ed Bridget McCloskey. who lived in
county. was brutally ravished.
strangled to death, and the body thrown
into morass. Search was instituted for
the missing girl, but the body was not
found till the 7th. Suspicion poiu to-
ward one Jones. a Welshman, as the
of the horrible deed, and he
was arrested and committed to the Tow
anda Jail. The scenes that then ensued
are thus described