The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-25
JOHNSON
IS SANE
Simeon Wharton's Muir
derer Exposes His
Fake Defense.

!
| If any juryman who sat in the trial
! OF Frank Johnson for the murder of lit
| tie Simeon Wharton, or any person in
the community, had any lingering doubt
about the mans sanity, raised by the
mastery defense made by Attorney
Harrison, that doubt has been dispelled
! by the defendant himself. The con-
victed man has given public demonstra-
ton of the possession of mental capac-
| ity to distinguish between right and
wrong. He has even gone step far
ther than that, for he has tried cleverly
4 to shift the blame for his crime to an
| other, while not making an open accu-
sation. And he has demonstrated that
his insanity defense was a fake, and
| that his own attorney was taken in
| by it.
| The case was called before Judge
Robinson in the Circuit Court yester-
day morning, that being the time set
for the sentence of the convicted man..
In the usual manner, the judge asked
| the condemned if he had any reason to
| advance why sentence should not be
! pronounced against him. johnson COM
| menced talking at once, talking logic
| ally and in the main coherently. He
began with the relation of the circum-
stances that had occurred at the Whar
ton house on the morning of the kill
| ing, and carried his story right along
to the time of his arrest.
CONNECTED TALK.
Then, going back to his life at Wal
kiki, and with he Hollis and Kent
| wells, he brought that story down log
ically, and connected it at the proper
point with the other. And then he car
ried the narrative right along through
his experiences in Jail, and during the
trial.
He touched upon points in the evil
dence, and recalled remarks made by
the Judge, and he never bungled or
slipped name, pronouncing names
that his counsel had been unable to
get out of him with perfect ease and
distinctness. And during the whole of
his narrative he adroitly skirted the
fact of the murder of the little boy,
while he tried to show that the Chinese
on the place had a grudge against him,
and had threatened to get him out Of
the way. The inference that he sought
to create was that the Chinese was as
open to suspicion as he was, and that
the circumstances against the Chinese
were as strong as against himself.
The Chinese. according to johnson,
had so tortured little dog belonging
to the Wharton children that it had
been necessary to kill it, and had been
addicted to vile practices for which
the condemned man had rebuked him,
and which johnson had threatened to
report to the boss, Wharton. The
Chinese had then threatened Johnson
with vengeance, and for this it was in
ferred the circumstances of the killing
of little Simeon were so twisted that
they were made to point more strongly
to the condemned man.
MAKING EXCUSES.
johnson accounted for the dirt on
his clothing by saying that he had been ,
drunk on the night before the killing,
and being unable to open the gate OF
the Wharton premises had climbed
over the fence, thereby getting red
earth on his garments. AS to his con-
fession, he said that two drunken po-
licemen had come to him in prison, had
tortured him, twisted his legs, and
stood him on his head, beaten him, |
kicked him, abused him, questioned |
him. until he did not know what he
said.
He even explained the testimony of |
Deputy Sheriff Cox of Waialua by sayI
ing that he had dropped on his knees |
and appealed to God for mercy when |
he was told that the Chinese had been !
released from custody, while he had |
been held. And all through this long |
and mainly coherent talk, he adroitly |!
avoided mention of the actual murder |
of the little boy. The whole thing was |
one of the most surprising occurrences /
that has ever taken place in a court |
in Hawai-.
JUDGE MAKES STATEMENT.
In sentencing johnson to be hanged, |
Judge Robinson said:
Personally, / am unalterably OPP !
posed to the infiction of the death pen
atty in any ease, and it matters not
what circumstances of atrocity and |
cruelty surround or are inseparably !
connected with the commission of the !,
offense charged.
cit was recently developed by the
confession left by a suicide in one of .
the Northwestern States, Montana, | /
believe, that the Court of Common +
Pleas of Akron, Summit County, Ohio,
made mistake soane years age ant.
convicted and executed the wfong !
NAM innocent man. That there /
enc mistake made, even IN one in
tanct Is Sufficient % Condemn tire IN |
fiiction Of the dealt. penalty in ali in
st4nees. |.
The taxing Of human life by com
nonweaith a. 4 punishment FOR crime !
and because % rs daterrent effect upon
possible subsequent offenders in the
commission of like crimes, is often
snt1aht 70 be iustified nnnn the ground