Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-06-07

SACRAM
in conflict with that given at the trial. People
VS.; McCauiey, As CAL, 1865; 81 Cal, S7S.
Inc motion tor q new trial must be denied.
A TRYING SCENE.
The defendant will stand up. As have here
tofore stated to you, you were informed against
by the District Attorney for the crime of muir
der, alleged to have been committed in this
fully, feloniousy and of your malice afore-
thought killing one Mark Feeney. To this in
formation you pleaded not guilty upon your
arraignment, and thereafter you were tried by q
jury and found guilty of murder in the first de-
gree.
This is the day heretofore fixed by the Court
for giving Judgment.
Your motion for new trial having been de-
MED, and no sufficient cause appearing why the
judgment of the Court should not now be
passed, it becomes at this time my duty to pro-
nounce upon you that penalty which the law
1t will not be necessary for me to 60 over the
details of the crime of which you stand con-
victed, as doubtless they are too indelibly
ton at my hands. 1t is sufficient for me to say
to you that in my judgment your trial was in all
respects as
EMINENTLY FAIR AID JUST
A one as can well be had undera any human sys-
TEN OF jurisprudence. Throughout its whole
course you were auOrueQ every reasonable Op-
portunity known TO the law toipTeseut fully and
amply before the Court and jury your defense to
the charge against you. You were ably and
skillfully defended by counsel of your choice;
only by fairness and showed a disposition to
give you the full benefit of every legal intend
ment l know il was the desire OF the Court
and believe of the prosecution likewise, to see
that no question upon which any reasonable
doubt could arise should be decided against
you
1 believe, also, that the jury before which you
were tried was in every way worthy not only
of the fill confidence OF the Court but o, vorr-
self as well-as fair and impartial a body as
could readily be secured from among your fel.
low men As result OF the trial you have been
convicted of the highest offense known to our
law-murder in the first degree without mitiga-
ton. This verdict is such as to leave the Court
no discretion, but to pronounce against you the
awful pen3lty of death Between that verdict
and my own sober judgment upon the facts l
can find no difference. 1t was the logical
AND INEVITABLE CONCLUSION
Forced by the terrible array of facts presented
against you, and cou d not justly have been
otherwise. will confess that I was painfully
conscious, during the trial, of a half formed de-
sire that the jury might see fit, in their wisdom
to mitigate the extreme punishment of death,
but after careful review of all the evidence
am satisfied that that feeling on nv part was
rather an uniformed desire to escape n very
painful duty than the result of Conviction
that there appeared in the case any reasonable
ground for sueh mitigation. | can now say to
you frankly that ! believe the verdict to be
right.
And wish to say to you now that do not be-
leve there is any reasonable ground for hope
on your part to escape the consequences of that
verdict. If believed there was error commit
ted in your trial should certainly grant YOU a
new trial. but do not. ! believe the verdict
viii be sustained and that the Judgment / am
now called upon to pronounce
WILL BE EVENTUALLY EXECUTED
AM
that II you have any preparations to make in
view OF the final event. that you set about such
preparation.
The sentence of the law and the judgment of
the court is That you Charles Freeman for the
murder of Mark Feeney, ON the 9th day of March.
A. d. 1890, of which you have been convicted
be taken hence to the County Jail ofthis county
such day as shall be hereafter Designated and
named in the warrant of execution of this udg-
ment IN due course of law, and that on such
DAY SO named and designated it is ordered that
you, the said charles Freeman, be by the Sheriff
OF SAID county of Sacramento taken to some
place within the wal or yard of said Jail or
some convenient private place within said
county, ana there hanged by the neck until
you are dead
FREEMAN BREAKS DOWN.
1t was quite evident that Freeman had
entered the Courtroom with the determi-
nation OF maintaining his composure, if
Nao "iSn lAC SOuEl commenced
to read those words which were to seal his
doom he looked straight at the Judge, and
tried to appear unconcerned but as the
reading progressed the words of such ter
rible import to him began to tell upon him.
and soon the tears filled his eyes and flowed
down his pale cheeks, while q great lump
IN his throat rose and fell.
1t was trying ordeal, even for a man
with nature as stolid and unimpression-
able as that of the prisoner, and he was
not wholly equal to the emergency. al.
though he had quite recovered himself by
the time the Judge had concluded his re-
marks, and walked with a tolerably firm
step from the Courtroom back to his cell.
HE WILL APPEAL.
Freeman's counsel intend to leave no
stone unturned in the effort to save him
from the gallows, and will take the neces-
sary steps at once to appeal the case to the
Supreme Court.
AN OBSOLETE CUSTOM.
After the adjournment of the Court
group OF gentlemen were discussing the
event of the day, when Judge Van Fleet
was asked why he had omitted to conclude
the sentence of Freeman without adding,
And may the Lord have mercy on you.H
He replied that it was an old common
law custom, now obsolete, and one which,
he thought, had become so stereotyped and
formal as to have lost its original soiemnity
and force.