El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-07
Ripper Is Sentenced To the
Penitentiary For
Life
SOME CLOSING SCENES
The Verdict a Surprise, For,
From the Evidence, a
Death Sentence
Was Expected

I'VE, the jury, find the defeDdsss<
John Ripper. guilty Of murder in shs
fret degree and fix his punishmeps a.
confinement in the penitentiary for
life.''
| Such was the verdict rendered oy
the twelve men, good and true, who
tried Sergeant John Ripper for she
murder of Newton Stewart, at 1910
Saturday night, after being out conc
six hours.
The verdict was q general surprise,
the majority having expected she
penalty would be death. Now shAx
Ripper, whom the evidence showed 30
be the leader If anything, escapes sbe
| death penalty, it is hardly TO be ex-
pected that it will be inflicted ON any.
The final verdict was evidently the re-
suit of q compromise. 1t is under
stood that ten jurors we're for the
death penalty and two were for ac-
quittal and life imprisonment vac
finally agreed upon as the best soiu-
tion.
Ripper failed to get chsnGe Of
venue or to have any negroes on sbe
jury as his counsel desired but tho gen
eral opinion expressed is that he euoiA
hardly have Jared much better NM
where. The colored people IN the city
have very little to say but they anti
cipated his conviction. One declared
he was glad they did not get any of hie
race on the jury and said he would NOS
have served on it for Fl We hundred dol
lars.
During the interval of waiting Kip
per seemed perfectly Indifferent and
when the verdict was read by Dissrict
Clerk Alderete he showed the same IN
difference and never gave sign as 70
what bis feelings were.
THE ARGUMENTS.
The end of the case carse
Saturaa ay afternoon at 3:55 SO far NJ
the proceedings in open court were
concerned. District Attorney Dean's
speech occupied about an hour and q
half OF the afternoon. He spoke wi In HE
usual force and the court room sn d the
corridors fairly rang with the sound
of his voice as he hurled his fierce
denunciation and bitter, withering
sarcasm at the defendant and urged
the jury to do their duty and find
verdict in accordance with the Inv
aud the evidence. That the defendant
was shown, by all the evidence, Id DE
guilty Of murder in the first degree
was the burden Of his theme and
death should be the penalty. That
was what he tried to drive home into
the minds of the jurors.
During the morning and early AZ
ternoon Judge Wilcox and Mr. Ssas-
ton spoke in behalf of their client and
made strong pleas. Judge Wilcox
severely attacked Capt. Lough borough
for having, as he alleged, so IL tina
1dated the negroes at the ForH Ss 20
render them afraid to give testimony
In behalf of their comrade and mad tt
I'm possible for his counsel to st cure
any evidence in his behalf. He also
charged that the captain had en-
deavored to inject his perso nal opi nions
into the evidence.
Judge Wilcox's speech was conceded
by those who heard 1t to have been oae
of the best heard here in sometime.
Counsel for the defense severely a.
tackled the testimony of Powell and
argued that he had been proved 80
have sworn falsely in res ard 10 rho
letters alleged to have been sent oy
him to his comrades in jail and hf.
testimony throughout was en tirely un-
worthy of belief.
Mr.. Dean In bis reply maintained
that there was sufficient circumsknnszaa
evidence to convict Ripper without The
confession of Powell While IL WAS
true that conviction could not be bad
on the unsupported evidence of I'D &C.
complice there was plenty of corrobo-
rating evidence in this case to justify =
conviction.
tNEn IN