The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-27
FOR LIFE IN
 PENITENTIARY Jack ThomDFsn Carried From ergreen. WILL TAKE APPEAL Prise i,s Attorneys We'll Satisfied
 With Verdict. Jnry out All Night Before Arriving At Decision,--Thompson Evinces No Interest When His Punishment
 Is Announced.


 John Cooped, Jack Thompson must spend the rest of his natural life in the Alabama penitentiary. Such was the o'clock in the Circuit Court room of Conecuh county.
 Tonight Thompson sleeps in the county jail of Montgomery county.
 On the first train which went out Of the city after the verdict was reached, he was started on his way to the pent- tentiary. He will tomorrow be assign ed by the State convict authorities either to the Walls at Wetumpka or to prison at speigners.
 The verdict was satisfying to the at torneys for the defendant In fact. it was probably gratifying to them. There will be no appeal. No attempt { was made to stay the execution of the sentence of the jury. The defense was quite as ready as the State to end the case and send Jack Thompson to his punishment. And so within a few hours after the jury had brought in it's findings, the formal sentence had been pronounced by Judge Richardson and Jack Thompson was speeding on his way to his hopeless life of the fu- ture.
 He heard the verdict without stir or motion. Without a word or look from nlfu tue luTy CdIkG III anu nditOGu kO tAiS clerk the verdict in this, perhaps Cone cuh county's most famous easc.
 ThOmpSon's Thoughts Afar.
 First, last and all the time Jack Thompson has been away and afaT from the court room proceedings. He has apparently noted nothing, said noth- ing and shown no sort of sign of inter- est. It may have been actingj there are many who think so; but the acting haa haar utIifa ann1
 And yet. notwithstanding his absorb tion, notwithstanding his aloofness. from this. the most important event of his life. there is in his nature, whether 1t be normal or abnormal, hankering for the dramatic iu one form ar an- other. On the first day of the trial he needs must make a sensational fs ap from the court room window. and other days lie had to fall upon his knees and bury his face in hts hands, as- though he were lost in prayer
 But for these things, for aught he said, did or looked, one might not tell that it was his life which hung in the balance, in the court room drama. The bitter denuneiation of trained and keen orained attorneys accustomed to such scenes and familiar with such work, could no more draw his visible notice than could the appearance of this old friend or that old friend on the stand, one testifying to help him and the other testifying to send him to the gal- lows.
 So when there was a knock on the Jury room door and the jury came out bearing the fate of life or death for him written on a piece of paner Tacl Thompson was made to rise to hear it and he stood there, as he had beer through the trial, stolid, vacant faced and repulsiye.
 Brother sObs Aloud.
 From him came no word or sign. but the brother, who has been faithfully. at his side from the time the terrible crime was committed. sobbed aloud ir the court room. although this verdict oI life Imprisonment was undoubtedly tn, best he could have expected. Keyed up as he had been throughout the tria with keen sorrow and intense excite, ment, the brother sobbed when tn, strain was over. but Jack Thompson had no tears and no words.
 It was a compromise verdict Sucl verdict was expected after the Jury had been out two or three hours Thurs 1 day night, no immediate agreement wa reached. An immediate agreement, i | was believed, meant a hanging. Bu ! when the jury remained out all O | Thursday night 1t was not thought tha 1 the verdict would carry the death pen | alty, nor was it thought that it woul' so the other way and have Thompson confined in the State Insane Asylum 1 The defense never expected any yer dict which would free Thompson. Tn best his attorneNs looked for was verdict sending him to the asylum an, what they got was beyond doubt satis l flying to them.
 The State wanted a hanging verdict The horrible crime which Jask Thomp l son had committed was open and pat ent. He had deliberately shot down hi wife and his aged father-in-law. Tn ! jury had only to decide whether his ac was the deed of an enraged criminal O whether it was the causeless act of al insane man. From the beginning tn | State contended that Thompson wa sane and that his eccentricities wer | assumed as q subterflIee to escape tn 1 consequences of his crime.
 l It Is reported for such reports leal out when a jury has done its work that five members held at the outset O the deliberations that Thompson wa sane and responsble and that the gal lows was the proper place for tn expiation of his crime, while a nlajori ty of the members of the jury held tha he was either insane or that there wa room for doubt upon this vital ques tion. Nor did these conflicting force get together, for the compromise yer dict, which would not give any of then an uneasy conscience for fear that al insane man had been hung. until the had talked the matter over for severa hours.
 sentence ls Pronounced.
 At l2:SO Thompson was brought int court to have the sentence of the Jur formally pronounced by Judge Rich ardson. He walked with little or n assistance from the accompanying dep utieg, In the early days of the trial h had to be all but carried by the depu ties, but in the past day or so, he ca walk alone and appears to have bi more intelligence and interest i things.
 In the court room Thompson wa helped to his feet and he stood starin straight ahead and unnoticing as Judg Richardson said;
 Have you anything to say why tn sentence of the jury should not be pro nounced upon you?" the Judge asked.
 W. c. Crumpton of counsel for th defense arose saying.
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