The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-04-18
THE DEATH SENTENCE.
May 31st Fixed for the Execution.


One Of the most solemn scenes
ever enacted in Pulaski was wit
messed Monday morning when
Judge Patterson sentenced Lar kin
Lancaster to death. The court
room was densely crowded aud
every one seemed IN UGH impressed
that human life had been de-
clared forfeited 10 the law.
AT 8 o'clock a motion in arrest
of the judgement of conviction was
argued and overru'ed. Later on
at ii o'clock the motion for a new
trial, supported by the prisone rs
affidavit, was argued.
Judge Patterson considered al
the ground OF the motion separa' e
ly and overruled them all. Then
just few minutes after II o'clock
asked the momeutous question
"Has the defendant anything furth-
er to say why sentence of death
should be passed upon hin?' te
which his counsel answered ."Nc
sir" Thereupon Judge Patterson
ordered, "Let the defendant be
brought forward to receive the SEN
tence," and one OF the court officers
conducted the prisoner to the bar
Very solemnly and impressively the
Judge delivered the death sen tence
as follows:-
Larkin Lancaster
Yol have been indicted IN this
court for murder in the first de
gree, done ID Giles county upon the
body Of Jack Dixon. You have
had what the Constitution guaran
tees to every person accused Of
crime, q speedy public trial by an
impartial jury of the county.
That jury, after a full and pains
taking investigation, passing upon
both the law and the facts, have
adjudged you guilty of murder ID
the first degree. The penalty o.
which is death by hanging.
1t 10 therefore my duty to pro.
nounce the sentence of the law up
on you
The judgment of this cour,
therefore, is that you be removed
to the jail of Giles county, there tt
be kept securely confined until Fri
day, the 3lst day of MAY, 1889, up
on which day between the hours 0
10 o clock in the forenoon and
o'clock in the afternoon. and upol
a gallows to be erected for tina
purpose by The sheriff of Gile
county, within the enclosed yart
of the Jail, or within an enclosur
erected for that purpose within
miles Of said Jail, which enclosur
shall be higher than the gallows O
50 constructed as TO exclude th
view of all persons outside tbereo
and in the presence Of such Of thos
persons allowed by law, as ma
choose to attend. You be hange
by the neck until you are dead
and may the Lord have merry O
your soul.
At the conclusion of the sen
tence the Judge added. Let tn
prisoner be remanded and the sen
tence executed" Lancaster wa
conducted back to his seat, and tn
crowd, which had almost held it
breath during the sentence file
slowly from the court room. Th
prisoner was the most self-pos
sessed man in the whole Assem- bly,
He stood very erect, head up, hand
down, with a countenance perfect
| ly unmoved.
The only exhibition of agitatio
was that his eyes filed up ono
and he gulped several times. Judg
Patterson was very much move
and once or twice his ice slight
ly qnivered. This is the first tim
he has had to 60 through the try
: ing ordeal of sentencing u fello'
being to death. Judge Patterso
did not deem it necessary to incor
porate into the sentence the direc
tions TO the sheriff embodied in b
act of March 9th, 1889, that if h
execute a prisoner in an enclosul
built outside the Jail yard he mus
carry him thither in covered an
closed vehicle so as to exclude GU
side observation.
Notice of an appeal to the mex
term of the Supreme court was gi'
en-