The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-24
To A FELLOWS DEATH
HENRY BROOKS, MURDERER OF
POLICEMAN FENDER, is con-
DEMNED.
SENTENCED A SECOND TIME
THE COURTS ORDER DIRECTS HE
SHALL DIE JANUARY II.

In the Presence of the Court Officers
and a Few Spectators, Judge Sea-
brook Passes the Dread Sentence
of the Law-BrOOks, Protesting He
Is Making His Peace With God,
Hears His Doom Pronounced
without a Quiver-His Old Mortal
Terror Has Disnppeared-COuns
VIII Apply TO Pardon Board for
Communication History of the
Crime and the Trial in Court.
Unless the pardon board of the state
should see fit to commute his sentence
to imprisonment in the penitentiary
for life, desperate hope the prob
abilities scarcely warrant. Henry
Brooks, the brutal murderer of Pa
trolman Harry B. Fender. will pay the
penalty of his crime on the gallows
on Jan. II, next.
Sentence was passed by Judge Sea-
brook in the Superior Court yesterday
morning, shortly after court convened
for the day. To prevent the assem-
bling of the crowd of morbid lovers
of the dreadful, the time when sem
tence would be passed had been kept
secret, and when Brooks was brought
before the bar of justice, where once
before he had heard the mandate of
the law pronounced, there Were.- be-
side the court officers, only a few per-
sons in the room.
The prisoner stared at the judge
with frozen attention from the time he
was brought into the court room.
Judge Seabrook asked him the stereo-
typed and time-worn question pre-
scribed by the law:
Henry Brooks, you have been tried
and found guilty of the crime of muir
der and the Supreme Court has refus-
ed the motion of your counsel for
new trial Have you anything to say
why sentence of death should not be
pronounced against your"
Il have nothing to say" said Brooks.
Judge Seabrook advised the prisoner
to devote the remainder of his days on
earth to making his peace with God,
and Brooks rejoined that this was his
daily occupation and the successful at
tainment of this object his fondest
hope.
Judge Seabrook said he had conf
dence in the tender promises of the
Christian faith, aud that he believed
that in the Divine mercy there was
grace even for the condemned and dy-
ing murderer. Brooks was told that
If in faith and humility he besought
the Divine forgiveness for his sins, his
prayer would be answered. Then the
solemn sentence was pronounced.
The sentence directed that the pris-
oner be taken from the Court House
to the county Jail, and there be safely
confined until Friday, Jan. IT, and on
that day, on a gallows to be erected
within the Jail enclosure, between the
hours of 10 o'clock in the morning and
in the afternoon, he be hanged by the
neck until he is dead. May God in his
| infinite goodness" the sentence con-
cluded, "have mercy upon your soul"
There was no sign of trepidation or
fear upon the prisoners face as the
sentence was read, and he went back
| to the jail with a smile upon his lips.
The mortal terror that seized him at
| the time of his trial and that made him
| tremble with guilt and remorse when
Judge Falllgant condemned him to the
| gallows, had entirely disappeared.
Messrs. Twiggs e. Oliver. counsel for
! Brooks who have done everything pos
sible for him in the conduct of his case
in the courts, will not now relax their
| efforts. They will make an appeal to
| the Pardon Board for a Communication
of the death sentence to Imprisonment
for life, on the ground, among others,
| that the negro Is mentally unbalanced.
After shooting another negro, on the
night of Feb. Is, Brooks fled, and Pa
trolman Fender, rushing to the spot
from which the shots seemed to have
proceeded, for the purpose of arres ting
the criminal, was himself shot down in
cold blood. This was at the corner of
Jefferson street and Perry lane. The
stricken officer fingered until the day
following, when he died.
Brooks was arrested the same night
and tried on March p and 20, found
guilty by the jury and sentenced by
Judge Falligant to die on the gallows
on May 10. A motion for a new trial
was filed by his counsel and acted as
a supersedeas to prevent the execution.
1t has been only recently that this
motion, after being overruled by Judge
Falligant, has been denied by the SUI
| prene Court to which tribunal IL was