The San Francisco call., 1897-12-23
EXECUTION OF
A HAWAIIAN
A MOIOkai Outlaw Dies for the
Murder Of a Chinese
StOPekeeper.
No Hitch to Mar the CerenaOny-In
One Week Three Murderers
Are Disposed OF.
Correspondence Of The Call.

Correspondence OF The Call.
HONOLULU, Dec 15.-Early Mon
day morning Noa, the native Molokai
outlaw, paid the penalty for the muir
der of a Chinese storekeeper. The
execution took place within the walls
of the Oahu prison. Seven minutes af
ter the trap had been sprung the heart
of the condemned man ceased to beat,
and in nine minutes the surgeons pro-
nounced life extinct. The execution
was successful in every particular.
Noa died without a perceptible tre-
NOR. Half supported by two guards
on his journey to the gallows he
stepped with unfaltering step upon the
death trap and Strengthening up he
stood motionleSS while his legs were
being bound with a strap. He showed
no fear when the moose was adjusted
about his neck, but rather assisted the
guards by holding his head high.
When the clergyman who had followed
the condemned man upon the scaffold
commenced to pray NOa reverently
bowed his head. The minister, with
eyes closed and hand upraised, had not
finished when one of the guards
slipped the black cap over the murder
er's head. Warden Low, standing in
the courtyard below, took out his
watch. 1t was the signal With a
rattle and bang the trap fell, and an
instant after Noa's body hung dang
ling in midair.
At the end of fifteen minutes the
body was cut down and removed to an
adjoining shed, where the autopsy was
performed. AS had been expected, it
was found that the vertebrae of the
neck had been dislocated, paralyzing
the spinal cord and producing almost
instant death.
The arrangements for the execution
were very thorough and were carried
out to the letter. AT daylight the
Warden and his assistant commenced
preparations The gallows was erect
ed in the courtyard behind the main
building. An electrician was early on
the ground. and arranged the trigger
of the trap SO that it could be set off
by one of the electric buttons within
the basement of the Jail. The other
two buttons were useless. Three
guards were placed in front of the but
tons. Upon an agreed signal from
Warden Low the guards pressed the
buttons, one of which sprung the fatal
trap.
There was no sympathy offered for
the murderer among those who wit
messed the execution. Not a relative
or friend was there to shed tear,
Noa had been cruel and Vindfcttve
during his lifetime and he found no
one to commiserate his end.
After the autopsy had been per-
formed the body was placed in a
plain pine coffin, removed to the Pot
ter's field and inferred at the govern
ment expense.
Swift justice has been visited upon
the heads of the Maui murderers.
Within the week Sagata and Yoshida
have been convicted Of murder in the
first degree and sentenced to death.
The Lahaina court has broken all rec
ords on murder cases, having disposed
of three in a weeks time. Sagata
was charged with the murder of his
wife and child, and was caught red
handed. Yoshida stabbed a japanese
woman to death with knife, and the
evidence of his crime was just about
as conclusive as that against his fell
low countryman. Sagata will be
hanged on the last Friday of March
1898.