The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-11-02
NO MERCY IN THE
SENTENCE OF MORT
Young Japanese Convicted of
Murderous Assault Is
Given Limit.
STILL THREATENS TO KILL
Says That He Might as Well
Hang as Serve the Long
Sentence.
(From Sunday IS Advertiser.)


man who had defeated the lawless pur.
pose of an alien organization yester.
day dissolved before the gaze of To.
mikichi Mort and, instead, he sees
prison walls without the glory about
them that his oriental imagination
would place there had the mirage held
good and his murdcrous intent been
satisfied and satiated. The assailant
of Sometaro. Sheba will spend the next
| five years of his life, if not more, at
hard labor as convict of the Territory
and branded criminal against the
laws he so disregarded. And, besides
this, he must pay for his deed the
fine of $1,000, not so much for the cash
in the neck of his victim, placed there
by his knife, but for the hairs breadth
of flesh which that knife missed.
Yesterday morning at half-past eight,
dapper and smiling as ever, the con.
victed criminal rose before Judge De
Bolt and heard the sentence that pro-
vides for the next years of his life.
Under the indeterminate sentence act.
Mort may spend ten years in prison
this is the maximum penalty he might
pay-but the court yesterday SEN
fenced him to the limit of its powers.
At the expiration of the five years he
must pay the $1,000 or serve another
year, and on his behavior only rests
his hope of release before ten years
have expired. The board of prison
commissioners and the Governor con.
troll the fate of Mort after the first
five years have been served.
His attorneys noted an appeal as a
matter of course, and the case will
probably go before the supreme court
on bill of exceptions. Meanwhile he
is out in n $4,000 bond
Still Bloodthirsty.
There are now doubts as to whether
this bond will be permitted to con
tinue, alleged statements of the Grim
inal steering him straight to Jail even
before the higher court has passed upon
his sentence.
The day following the return of the
verdict there were several rumors
around about him, some of which were
absurd and Others of which are thought
to have been substantiated enough to
deprive him of his temporary freedom.
As n result of these statements,
Sheba has been given n bodyguard by
the police and is keeping on the alert
to ward off another possible attack.
The fanatic whose knife once merely
missed cutting the thread of his life
has said about town that he might as
well be hanged as serve the sentence,
and that he is going to make another
attempt to kill Sheba and succeed.
Next week this statement will prob
ably be brought to the official atten-
ton of the court and his bond fixed at
a figure that will discourage anyone
from attempting to go on it.
Recommendation Spurned.
The recommendation for the mercy of
the court served for nothing except to
discredit, if not the jury that made it,,
at least the one man ON the jury who
forced it to be placed there. Judge
DE Bolt made no bones at signifying
the man whose action induced him to
denote the conduct of the jury as dis.
graceful. William Tirrell, who, it is
alleged, did his best to force the jury
to remain out over night, is the man
who has earned the right to the title
of the professional juror, if the state
ments made against him are true and
1t was he who caused the court to say
that his remarks about the action of
the jury, which were hot, applied, of
course, to those on the jury who were re-
sponsible. Tirrell is an old man, driver
by occupation but seldom with it, thin.
faced with scraggly white mustache,
watery apologize eyes, slouched shout
ders and hint of slyness about him,
evidently born of necessity.
OF the recommendation of mercy, the
court stated that it was not to be con.
: sidered, that it was totally and abso.
lutely without excuse. To the reports
of Tirrell IS action on the jury, Judge
De Bolt stated that he could pay no
official attention.
} About the jury he said, "I can only
account for that long absence of the
jury as being total failure on their
part to grasp the Importance of their
duties as jurors and as citizens of this
community. The remarks of the court
! apply only to those who were the cause
of such unnecessary and disgraceful de.
lay"
The jury should have returned a yer.
diet in less than fifteen minutes time,
according to the opinion of the Judge.
Morris Bloody Act.
In regard to the attempt of the de.
Tense to mitigate the seriousness Of
the crime by showing the reputation
of the defendant on Maui, the court
said that reputation was not character
and that his character was best shown
by the bloody act Of August third.
: With the passing Of sentence Mort 4
hopes end, except 10 the extent that
be still dreams Of fulfilling his express,
ed determination 10 rid the world of
one man Ia Hawaii that kept tho local
Japanese labcrars from covering them,
selves Win Disgrace aud sligma that
would surely he the enuso NJ other ma
ilonnllilos supPlanting thom, With tho
sentence also ends the last echo ~ tho
llighnr Wage Association aud iiu bid.
don and lnwless attempt tO control tho
labor situation NJ tho Islands 10 has
TUNED up NJ toes la tho most polite
| manner and fFOHLp1