Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-08-26
Miseellansuus 8eading.
THE CRIME OF MURDER.
Judge Watts Delivers Seathins Lee
ture to ThraiIkill.

Judge Watts Delivers Seathins Lee
ture to ThraiIkiII.
After refusing a motion for new
trial in the case Of Morgan Thrailkill.
convicted in Saluda county last week
for the murder of Benjamin F. Bur-
ton, an inoffensive school teacher.
Judge Watts, after the prisoner had
been arraigned for sentence, talk to
him as follows:
You have been tried and convicted
by a jury Of your country Of murder.
It is now my painful duty to pass SEN
tence upon you. I am always sorry
for any one who Is in trouble and dis
tress. But you have violated the law
Of your country. A jury Of your coun-
and have recommended you to the
mercy of the court. am Of the opin-
ion that the verdict was warranted
absolutely by the facts of the case.
do not see how the jury could have
done otherwise under the testimony
in the case than to have found the
verdict they did. I think 1t Is going
to have a happy effect throughout
the State of South Carolina, because
the people Of this State will learn
that a man Of respectable character
when he commits a crime, the same
as the poor, the ignorant and the
unlettered. There has been too much
shooting in South Carolina. Men too
much have taken the law in their own
hands. You cannot pick up a news
paper but what you will see that some
body has been killed. Defendants
come in court and make an effort
at self-defence. I heard the solic-
itor of the 9Th district say he was ab-
solutely afraid to blow his nose IN
the court house because he carried
his handkerchief in his hip pocket
and was fearful that somebody might
take that as an excuse for shooting
that you went up to Monetta with
malice in your heart and blood on
your mind. You went up there to
pick a row, it seems to me, with the
school teacher. What the cause OF
l do not know, but he ithe teacherl
seemed to be q very inoffensive and
quiet young fellow. You had no
right to take the law in your hands.
The worst feature Of your whole case,
to my mind, is that you loaded your
shotgun with buckshot and you gave
your 1S year old boy a pistol, and car
ried him along with you. a boy, es-
pecially one 18 years old, Will do any
thing his father tells him to do. !
think your son Is more to be pitied
than to be blamed. He was acting
under your orders. You went up
there to harm the school teacher and
got into an alteration with the broth-
er Of the man you subsequently killed,
and as far as can learn you shot
him for no cause at all, and you
concluded you would clean up the
crowd. When his brother came down,
as was natural that he should DO, on
hearing that his brother had been
shot, you shot him down without CIV
ing him a dogs chance. He might
have been a bad man. I do not know
ANYTHING about that. The testimony
deyeloped the fact that he had had
some fights in his life. Unfortunately
and unluckily all Of US have done the
same thing. 1 suppose IL / was on
trial you could rake up some fight
have had and so far as that Is con-
cerned, most everybody else In TINS
court room. The older man gets the
more he realizes that fighting does
not paw. 1 would take a great deal
before 1 would fight under any cir
cumstances. The man who wins his
fight usually gets the worst OF 1t: l
would rather be the dead man tnan
the live one-that is, I would rather
be dead than to have to kill a man.
I do not think a man has much nap
piness when he takes human life, un-
less he does 1t acting strictly In SELL.
defence. The law Is that no man can
claim self-defence unless he Is with,
out fault in bringing on the quarrei
Won could feel II In the air around the
court house that those people around
about Monetta seemed to be afraid to
testify in this case. 1t actually looked
as II they had been terrorized some,
how. You are the most determined
man l ever saw. You went to Monet
ia for a certain purpose and you car
ried it into effect. I think the jury
deserve great credit for finding the
verdict they did, and / think II IS a
happy omen for this county, going 10
show that the people Of Saluda county
are tired Of lawlessness. are tired OF
40 much bloodshed, and in fact they
fare determined to cut 1t down ana
place this county on an equality with
other counties in this state so far as
law and good order are concerned.
This Is one of the finest counties L
ever saw in my life. Its people, wnite
and black, are courteous and polite
and 1 cannot understand why there
should be so much shooting. 1 am
sorry for you. I am sorry for your
wife, l am sorry for your children. l
have got five children myself. l have
frequent N'isned, on occasions OF sen
fencing defendants, that the punish
ment could fall upon the guilty alone.
IYour wife and children will suffer Pc
cause Of violation Of the laws or tne
land. Nothing that we can DO can
bring the dead man back to life. ana
to his wife and three little children. II
Is one Of the saddest cases that l ever
saw in my life. I trust you WIN mars
vour peace and repent of your mis-
deeds. Let the prisoner be arraigned
for sentence"
The prisoner was arraigned and re-
sponded that he had nothing to say
WHY sentence should not be passed
upon him. Judge Watts then SEN
fenced him to hard labor in the state
penitentiary for the period or MS ma
tura1 life