Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-05-23
BECKER STARTS
NEW BATTLE ON
VERDICT OF Jury
Appeal by His Lawyers Will Act
as Stay of Execution for
Over a Year.

NEW YORK, May 23.-For the sec
ond time Charles Becker. former po-
lice lieutenant, today occupies d cell
in Tombs prison the convicted MUIR
derer Of Herman Rosenthal, gambler,
for the actual killing of whom the
four gunmen paid the penalty in the
electric chair a little more than a
month ago.
Today. as on October 25 1872, the
day following his first conviction for
the murder of Rosenthal, Becker 8
only hope to escape the fate Of ths
gunmen lays in the success Of an ap-
peal from the verdict. On Friday Of
next week Becker will be sentenced,
and soon thereafter he will be re-
turned to the death house at Sing
Sing prison. which he left last Feb
ruary on the order of the Court of
Appeals that he be given new trial.
Appeal Means Long Stay.
An appeal by Beeker's counsel,
which is certain to be made. will act
as a stay of execution, giving Becker
more than a year TO live and with it
the hope of another reversal of the
judgment of the trial court.
The verdict of guilty by the jury,
returned after four hours and five
minutes of deliberation, came as a
shock to Becker, his devoted wife and
his lawyers. They had hoped for &C
quittal; they had expected disagree
ment, but had not for a moment
thought that a jury would convict
Becker after the Court Of Appeals
decision.
The jury could have spared the life
of Becker Under the instructions OF
Justice Samuel Seabury the Jurors
had the choice of three degrees OF
murder two of which would have
meant Imprisonment. But this jury
like two juries before it, the first
Becker jury and the twelve men who
convicted the four gunner, believed
that Jack Rose, chief of the Becker
accusers, told the truth when he un-
folded on the witness stand the plot
for the murder of Rosenthal by the
gunmen at the instigation of Becker
Martin T. Manton, chief Of ths
Becker lawyers, announced that hii
appeal would be based on the admis
sion of the testimony of Mrs. LiiliaT
Rosenberg, widow of Lefty Louis,
the gunman; the ruling of the cour
| in refusing to hear before the jur.
| the argument on the abmissibility o
the 'sDago Frank" Cirofici comics
sion. and on the Justices charge Z
the jury to which he took exception
in court.
| Becker refused to dis cuss the yer
| dict. To a newspaper reporter tn
condemned man replied to an expires
sion Q fsorrow that Il feel sorry 70
4 myself" Then he was led away I
| his cell.
Bccker's Wife ColIspses.
Mrs. Becker collapsed when told b,
her brother, John Lynch. tina
"Charlie has gone back TO the Tombs.
| She didn't have to be told that tn
verdict was kuilty; that he had gon'
| back to his cell was sufficient. Sh'
was unable TO speak. and it was SOM
time before she was able to leave tn
Criminal Court building. with the as
sistance of friends, for her home.
| Mrs. Herman Rosenthal, widow o
the man for whose murder four mel
| have already paid the penalty and 70
which Becker stands convicted. sal,
the verdict was a just one and tha
she had expected it. She expressed
sorrow for Mrs. Becker, whose loyalt,
To her husband, she said, had won he
admiration.