The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-06-11
kEZIAH HANGED.
A LEGAL EXECUTION IN THE
NEW JAIL.
The Penalty for Deliberate and Cold
Blooded Murder-Death March
Was Most Impressive.

John keziah. a negro, was executed in
the new jail Friday, June 5, as directed
by law. The crime for which the muir
derer paid the penalty with his life was
committed at Pickett station on the
Shreveport and Texarkana railway, on
November 23, 1902. His victim was Will
liam Steele, negro, with whom he had
been gambling. A dispute arose between
the men over so cents which Keziah. a
bully, insisted should be returned to
him. In frenzy of temper Keziah rnur-
dered Steele and when pursued by Con-
stable Pyron, he stopped several times
IN his course and deliberately fred at
the officer, from whom he escaped. He
was apprehended, however, and Jailed.
He was given fair trial, during which
he was ably defended by his ATTORNEYS,
Messrs.' Fullilove & Mills, who, after
his conviction exerted every measure
known to law but without avail The
State was represented by District tor
ney Land, who submitted the case to
the jury without argument. 1t was a
PLAIN case OF murder and the jury re-
sponded unqualiiedly to the evidence
and the law. On an appeal to the ST.
preme Court by the attorneys for the
prisoner the verdict of the Jury was sus-
tanned. AS usual all efforts to commute
the sentence to life Imprisonment were
eNerted in behalf of the prisoner, who,
until the eve of the day fixed for the
execution, had comported himself as
one who was in Jail. for amusement,
having festive time with his con1pan-
ions. he communication failed and the
decree of law demanding the penalty
being manifest, there came over the
prisoner desire to be saved and he
had summoned to his side the minis
tiers he had rejected. He soon became
invested with a religious frenzy through
which he imagined that he would be
taken to glory on angels wings, and
with more or less stimrIants he ascend
ed the trap from which his body was
sprung into space, dangling by the neck
at the end of rope Keziah died of
strangulation.
It is, unnecessary to indulge in de-
tails which are gruesome and which
would invest the murderer with some
degree of a martyr. Throughout the
several stages preceding the hanging
the only feature which was impressive
was the march from the old jail to the
new. On either side of the streets there
were jams of people, mostly negroes,
who were vividly impressed by the SOL
emnity of this scene. When the prisoner
had disappeared inside the Jail the
crowd seemed relieved Of some oppres-
sion and resumed the maudlin spirit of
anxiety and of curiosity which was
heightened when it was announced that
Keziah was dead As the body was not
then visible to public view, the crowd
gradually dispersed, until there were
only left the officers of the law, the
sheriff and some Of his deputies, the
wife Of the man hanged and few of
her friends who synpathized with her.
And what effect will this execution
have on the vicious, on those inclined to
defy all law? 1t is terrible punishment
for a human being to be executed le-
gaily, but, after all, if there were more
legal hangings with less display Of the
the effect no doubt would |
be most salutary As it is, the hanging
Of murderer is attended with more or
less sentiment, which is almost ira
vesty on justice and the law, which is
cold and unsympathetic Perhaps it is
best that the criminal, when hanged,
should imagine that henceforth he is to
dwell in the midst of flowers and honey
It is better that he should be shuf1ed off
n that spirit thai1> to lose his nerve"
md have to be dragged to the scaffoid,
1eld up and hanged anyway The fate
of Keziah should be warning to
3thers.
NORTH LOUISIANA COTTON