The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1877-11-30
THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE

with grief.
You have had fair trial. by jury Of
good and true men, each and every one of
| whom swore, and | have no doubt truly
swore, that their minds were perfectly i'm
| partial between the state and yourself Your
counsel-able, true, and learned as they are
| have done for you all that professional
skill and ability and eloquence could accom-
plish. Ii you could have been acquitted
they would have acquitted you. The testi-
mony against you was too powerful for them
to overcome, and too powerful for the Jury
| to resist Under the solemn circumstances
which now surround you, it is both just and
! proper that you should feel that you are
| the author and the finisher of the dreadful
fate which you are about to meet. You
ought to feel, and deeply feel that you alone
are responsible for the penalty which is
about to be pronounced against you. You
cannot blame the law, for it is just. You
cannot blame the jury, for the testimony re-
quired their verdict. You cannot blame
your counsel, for they did all that ability
and fidelity could do for you, You cannot
blame the Judge for the law gives me no
discretion as to the judgment must give in
your case. All, all are free from blame in
this transaction but yourself Less than
twenty days ago, you went to the house of
poor old man in this county, just rs he
and his wife and his sons and his daughters, ]
had come from the field in which they had
been laboring, and were making prepara-
ton for their frugal evening meal, and in
three minutes after you had entered that
house. il was darkened with sorrow and
death Scarcely a dozen words were uttered
before one of the sons of that inoflensve old
man was struggling in the throes and ago,
MES of death. at your hands. In a few min
utes after you entered that humble home
jeremiah Daniel Jenkins was shot by you,
in the back of the head, and his brains and
life blood were eXuding from the wound,
and the young man was dying in the pres
ence of his stricken father and mother, and
his sorrowng brother and sisters. And
stranger than ALL according to the uncontra-
dicted testimony in your case, you shot him
for nothing in the world According to the
testimony, young Jenkins had never harm
ed YOU in his life--he did not speak an I'M
kind word to you-he made no sort of as
saut upon YOU nor did he offer to you any
kind of offence, insult or violence whatever.
SO far as appears from the testimony you
killed him for no cause whatever, that the
law of the land would justify, or in any
manner excuse.
Is it strange, therefore, that you should
be now standing at the bar of this court, to
receive the penalty which the law denounces
against one who thus takes the life of fel-
low being without justification or excuse
If it were otherwise, would there be any
protection for society against the violent and
the blood-thirsty?
When the laws Of Georgia declare, that
the punishment Of murder shall be death,
they but repeat the penalty which God him
self declared should be executed upon all
who might be found guilty Of that great
crime
"Whoso shcddeth mans blood, by man
shall his blood be shed. y
"Whoso killeth any person, the murderer
shall be put to death. -
"IIe that killeth any man shall surely be
put to death.
Gle that smiteth man so that he die,
shall be surely put to death. "
aye shall take no satisfaction for the life
of murderer, which is guilty of death ; but
he shall be surely put to death. y
These are the solemn utterances of the
Bible itself. They are the positive enact
ments of the living and eternal God, and
their justice none can gainsay or question
| call your attention to these things not
for the purpose Of simply narrowing your
feelings, but because | would not have you
90 from the bar Of this court feeling that
the law had done you injustice The law is
right. and human society demands the pro
lection which it affords
| Now, Mr.. Brown, your race will soon be
run Young though you be, your career on
| earth is ended, and | cOnjure You to lose
| sight of everything in this world except Il
preparation to meet that God, at whose bar
| you must soon appear to answer for the
deeds of this life. There is a fountain
opened in the house of David, for sin and
unclcanness ofevery Kind and type. Though
/ you may be an unrepentant sinner-though
! your hands may be stained with the blood
| of your fellow man--though you may be u
condemned feon, of whom the law declares,
| that it is not fit that you should longer live,
vet there is mercy and hope and salvation
for YOU, in the atoning blood of the Re
deemer "Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow; though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool,
| if YOU will but seek with all the heart, an in
| terest in thatatonement
Gle that turns TO God shall live
Through His Astounding grace, 3
His mercy will the guilt forgive,
\ OF those who seek His face"
Although, when poor Jenkins begged
YOU for mercy, and held up his hands, cry
ing ooh don't shoot met you turned a
deaf earao his piteous cry, the God of infin-
tie mercy will hear you, if you seek his face
Alright, and He will pardon all your sins,
blot out all your transgrcssions, give you a
new and clean heart and prepare you for an
eternal home in a better world than this.
Oh, that you may seek pardon and peace
and salvation, in the blood of crucificd
| Saviour, and thus be ready and prepared to
meet your doom when the day of execution
shall come.
The court pronounces in your case the fol
lowing judgment:
Whereupon, it is ordered, adjudgcd and
sentenced by the court, that the defendant,
George Brown, be taken from the bar of
this court, by the sheriff Of said county of
Cobb, to the common Jail OF said county,
and that the said George Brown be keptand
confined safely and securely in said Jail until
Friday, the twenty eighth day Of December,
1871 and on that day, the said George
Brown be, by said sheriff, or his lawful
deputy, taken to place Of execution to be
provided by the Honorable Ordinary of said
county, within one mile of the court house
in said county and that on said day, be
tween the hours of ten clock in the fore
noon. and three o'clock in the afternoon,
at said place of execution to be provided as
aforesaid, the said George Brown be, by