Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-02-06
Judge Albrook in Sentencing
Murderer Intimates Jury
Was Too Lenient
IN CLASS WITH ANARCHISTS
Court in Carrying Out tho Jury's In
structons Indicates That Hanging
Would Have Been His Judgment Had
Decision Been Left to Him Win
tiers Severely Condemned.
Special to Times-Republican.


Eldora, Feb. 6.-The failure of Will
lam Winters to allow his plea of gull
ty to stand in court, thus making a
jury trial necessary, is all that saved
him from the scaffold. Judge Albrook,
in pronouncing sentence upon Winters
yesterday afternoon, plainly told the
prisoner that he considered the jury
as too lenient and intimated that had
the penalty been left to him 1t would
have been death. In sentencing the
prisoner Judge Albrook said:
"Mr. Winters you may rise in your
place. ] assume that there is no rea-
son why, at this time, | should advise
you of the character of the charge
against you. beyond that. of course, as
ordinarily pursued by the courts in
pronouncing sentence.
"The grand jury Of this county on
the 2Sth day of January returned an
Indictment against you in this court
charging you with the crime of having
committed murder In the first degree,
in that you killed one Linn Trimble
in Union, iowa, by shooting him when
you were. in the act of committing
robbery.
you were called upon in court to
answer to the Indictment and duly
arraigned, and at your request coun-
sci was appointed to make defense
for YOU You entered plea of not
guilty to the Indictment and the case
was submitted to twelve jurors select
ed by your counsel, and that of the
state
your counsel did everything pos
sible for you that colld be done I'M
der the circumstances: they prose-
cuted your case vigorously. The jury
in this case returned a verdict find
ing you guilty as charged in the in
dictment, guilty Of having committed
the act with which you were charged
in the manner and form as charged
in the indictment. In their verdict
they recommend that you be confined
in the penitentiary at hard labor dur
ing your natural life. Now the court
is called upon to pronounce Judgment
on the verdict.
81 ask you now if you have any
reason to assign why judgment should
not be pronounced upon you at this
time?"
Defendant Winters--"I have no rea-
SON."
Court-"Inasmuch ;ls 1t is true that
If the verdict Of this jury is carried
out faithfully by the officers of this
state, you never again will be at lib
erty, it will be of little avail to talk
to you, yet l feel justified, under all
the circumstances, in saying some-
thing to you that may under the cir
cumstances sound to you little
harsh but 1 say 1t for the benefit OF
others who may. be disposed in the
direction that you were.
"Your counsel in argument to the
jury urged, as a reason why they
should be lenient with you, your age
The Judgment of the court is that that
is circumstance against you. The de-
Tense was that you were degenerate
| concur, and think the jury concurred
in the defense can not help but fee
that a young man Of your age, and
with what seems to be your ability, Is
degenerate. Grass you Will lAedl CLASS
of men that threw the bomb at the
Haymarlset riot, and the class of men
that rejoiced over the result.
my judgment is, that God never hao
a place on his footstool for men of that
class; it was left for man to make 9
place for men of that character.
think that the jury that returned the
verdict in this case were too lenient.
can not help but feel that the five mer
who voted that the death penalty
should be inflicted upon you were right
in the conclusion they arrived at.
: eve have anarchists and nihilists ir
this country, and my judgment is that
the majority of the men found in those
classes are men of your mental cali
Der, and your natural criminal DISPOSE
ton. While regret to have mar
stand before me convicted of the crime
that you are convicted of, yet l have
no regrets in this case, after hearing
the evidence, of being obliged to pro-
nounce sentence upon you. 1t is the or
der of court that you stand committed
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