The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-04-15
CONDEMNED TO DIE.

CONDEMNED III DlC.
1t is q notorious fact that although
many murders occurred during Republi-
can ascendancy in South Carolina in
which white men killed colored people,
yet no white man was ever executed for
such crime under their administration
of the government by them, and they
have repeatedly asserted that none would
ever occur under a Democratic admins
tration. Since re obtained the govern
ment these killings have almost entirely
stopped, and the following report of a
case terminated at the late Spartanburg
Court, taken from the Carolina Spartan,
shows that the laws are, and will be, i'm
partially administered by our Courts:
Thomas White, white man, several
weeks ago, on the streets of Spartanburg,
while intoxicated, by some strange freak,
shot and killed Pet Williams, negro,
without provocation. The strange thing
is that he did this without knowing Haw-
kins, or without any provocation to shoot
him. It may never be known what was
the secret spring in his mind that made
him do this deed.
Friday afternoon the prisoner was
brought into Court and placed in the
dock. A dense crowd packed the court
room at the time. Judge Wallace, feel
ing the awful solemnity of the occasion,
said:
"Thomas, White, stand up. Have you
anything to say why the sentence of
death should not be pronounced on
you ?"
For the first time during the whole
trial the prisoner showed some agitation
of mind. His voice was little quiver-
ing, and he said: "I can only say that I
am clear Of the charges against me. I
am not guilty of them. l am innocent
of it. In my conscience before God I
don't feel that I done this deed. I don't
think it right before God to put me to
death for what I did not do" These
were about his words, uttered with not so
much connection as here expressed.
Judge Wallace then said about as fol-
lows:
Unfortunately for you, Thos. White,
jury of your countrymen have declared
you guilty, and it is my painful duty to-
declare the judgment of the law. I do
not punish you, and the jury does not
punish yop. The jury have found, after
careful investigation, that you killed Pet
Hawkins. On that record the duty,
painful as it is, devolves upon me to pro-
nounce the sentence of the law. / can
not find it in my heart to add one word
to the keen distress you feel. All men
must die; but when you, a young man,
full of life, just in the vigor of manhood,
come to die telon's death, it must pen
citrate you with degree of distress which
cannot be expressed in words. 1t must
occur to you, as it must to every man,
that if you had not had pistol in your
pocket"
Prisoner: "I did not have pistol
before God"
Here his attorney asked him to be
silent. Judge Wallace was patiently
waiting to hear what he had to say.
eff you had not had pistol in your
pocket, and been on that fatal afternoons
drinking liquor to excess, Pet Hawkins
would not have been killed, and you
would not be here to receive the sentence
of death. Pet Hawkins death and your
approaching death are traceable to the
common practice of drinking liquor to
excess, which practice proved as fatal as
if you had administered strychnine to
Pet Hawkins and then taken it yourself.
Examples are of such frequent occur
renee in South Carolina, where the free
use of whisky, Joined with the practice of
carrying concealed weapons, brings many
men to danger and death, that, it seems
to me, all good men ought to endeavor to
concentrate public opinion so as to check
these two evil practices. Thomas White,
I regret that it is my duty to give it as
my opinion that you will be obliged to
die. 1t seems that you have nothing to
do but to make your peace with that God
whose laws you have violated. Let me,
who would do everything in tenderness,
exhort you to save yourself from a more
dreadful punishment than the law can
infict. I will not protract this fearful
scene. The sentence of the law is that
you be taken from the place where you
now are back to the Jail, and there kept
in close confinement until Friday, the
23rd day of April next, and that, on that
day, you be taken from the Jail to the
place of private execution, and there be-
tween the hours of 10 a. m. and p. m.
be hanged by the neck until you are
dead; and may God have mercy on your
aou1 ~