Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-01-21
NEWS BY TELEGRAPH
ITO THE
Daily Kenaebee aournal.
BELFAST.
GORDON SENTENCED.
The Prisoner TO Suffer Capital Punish-
ment.

Belfast, 20. The last act connected with
the trial Of John T. Gordon, the Thorndike
murderer, took place to- day. At O'Clock,
the prisoner having been brought into court,
County Attorney Fogler, in the presence of
the Attorney General, asked that sentence be
pronounced. In reply to an inquiry by Judge
Dickerson if he had anything to say in biz.
behalf, Gordon, in firm voice and without
apparent emotion, spoke substantially as fol-
lows
Il am not guilty in the first place, although
circumstances, evidence and false witnesses
are all arrayed against me, aud although
there are doubts about the existence of such
q man as Charles W. Greene, who committed
the murder; who was seen by more than one
person in Ihorndke on the seventh of June
last, conyersing with me. / might go back
and revive the relations which existed be-
tween my brother, his wife and family and
myself. In regard to the letters received by
young lady with whom was keeping COM
pany, which were derogatory to my character
and which are said to constitute motive for
the murder. She says these letters did not
change her mind. | do not see where the
motive was there | think there was doubt.
iul evidence enough to grant me new trial.
Everything connected with my past life has
been eXtorted to great extent even after the
murder was committed. Even the little boy
uyl o NC JaI 10 e,l
answer when asked about the murder. Pub
lie opinion has been strong against me. If
you feel to give me sentence cannot help
it, am before God and man innocent of the
deed, and time will show it,"
His Honor, Judge Dickerson, in a most
solemn and impressive manner, pronounced
the sentence of death, as follows:
] John True Gordon: AT the October term
of the Supreme Judicial Cour. held in this
county in 1873, you was indicted, tried and
convicted of the murder of Emma A. Cor
don, on the sixteenth day of June last. The
crime for which you stand convicted is that
of murder in the first degree, under our
statutes punishable with death. The report
ynu availed yourself of the humane provs-
iors of the law in your favor in regard to i'm
panneliHg the jury, summoning and paying
the witnesses in your behalf, the assignment
of counsel and the right to testify in your
own case. 1t also appears from that report
that you was defended by able counsel ard
had a protracted, full and impartial trial
Though there was no positive evidence of
your guilt, yet the facts attendant upon the
commission of the crime and subsequent cir
cumstances Immediately connected Herewith,
including your own acts and declarations,
were so numerous, CONSTANT, independent
and corroborative of each other, and all
pointing in the same direction, and were so
conclusively established by different intimate
and credtable witnesses as to exclude every
theory of your innocence add remove all ra-
tional dosbt of your guilt. The verdict in
your case is an authoritative sanction of the
Conclusiyeness of circumstantal evidence
when thus presented and an emphatic refu-
tation of the charge so often made on the one
hand by morbid incrcdulity that juries will
not and on the other by sickly sentiment
tally that they ought not to convict person
charged with murder in the first degree upon
circumstantial evidence alone. 1t moreover
speaks volumes in praise of the discriminate
ing Judgment, answering fidelity and fear
less independence of the Jurors who render
ed it. Such yerdicts too are an index of the
| high moral tone Of the community in which
they are rendered, aud mightier far for the
prevention Of crime than scatIoll, gibbet, or
galows, or guillotine, since they insure the
certainty Of punishment, which, when it so
speedily follows the commission of the Of
fence, is the bulwark of individual security
and public order. The trial in your case il
illustrates the wisdom of the statute allowing
| tho accused to be witness in his own be-
hali and the soundness of the construction
put upon that statute by the court which
makes ,hr refusa of the accused to certify a
circumstance proper for the consideration OF
the jury il connection with the other evil
denc. in the case in determining their YER
dit. phat statute thus construed is au i'm
ortant instrumentality for the discovery Of
the truth. be that the guilt or innocence of
the accused, and renders it more difficult to
c0nuict the innocent and easier to convict the
gXilty than it was under the rules of evidence
established by the common law. You chose
to encounter the danger of testiiying rather
than run the risk of refusal, but testimony
50 far from relieving your case of the accum-
ulatiYe weight of the evidence of your guilt
increased the gravity of the existing burden.
Under this statute thus construed, consider
ing the millnoss Of our laws, the latitude al
lowed jurors in finding the lesser offence
wncn the greater is charged, and the large
discretion of the court in fixing the punish
ment there is little danger OF the conviction
of the innocent or the acquttal of the guilty
The scene of the murder the residence of
your brother and his family, and the home of
your aged parents whose hospitality you en-
joyed, the relationship subsistng between you
and your victim, brother and sister. in taw,