The Express. — 1867-01-08 (London, England)

THE CONVICTS UNDER SENTENCE OP DEATH AT MAIDSTONE.  Although some efforts have been made to procure a commutation of the capital sentence passed upon the woman Anne Lawrence, who was convicted at the recent grand gaol delivery for the county of Kent, before Baron Channell, of the murder of her child, a boy four years of age, by cutting his throat, it appears that they have been unsuccessful. A communication was received yesterday by Mr. F. Scudamore the acting undersheriff for the county of Kent. from Mr. Walpole, the Home Secretary, to the effect that the government had carefully coosidered all the circumstances connected with the crime of which the prisoner was convicted, and they are unable to discover anything that would justify the executive in recommending her to the clemency of the crown. It has been already stated that, although the wretched woman persisted, even after sentence of death had been passed upon her, in declaring that she was innocent, and asserted that the murder was committed by her paramour, which was the defence set up for her at the trial, almost immediately afterwards she confessed her guilt, and made a detailed statement of the circumstances under which the murder was committed. According to this statement, it appears that the prisoner represented that she was so maddened by the infidelity of the man with whom she was cohabiting, that she was almost beside herself, and the thought suddenly struck her that she would murder him and the child, and that when she went downstairs in the morning to get breakfast, leaving her companion in bed asleep, she saw the razor, and resolved at once to carry out her deadly intention. She first destroyed the cum by cutting his throat, and it appears from her statement that he died without a struggle. She then attacked the man with the billhook, but he awoke at the first blow and seized her, and she was thus prevented from carrying out her intention to destroy his life. There seems to be very little doubt that if she had succeeded in killing the man Walter Frighten she would have destroyed her own life, and that it was only when she found that she was unable to carry out this intention that she resolved to endeavour to fix the crime upon her paramour, and during the many months that she had been in custody, she persisted in the meet extraordinary man• ner in asserting that this was really the case. The earnest manner in which she asserted her innocence to Mr. Hughes, the professional gentleman who conducted her defence, produced a strong belief in his mind that she was speaking the truth, and it has since transpired that the learned judge who tried her, Baron Channell, was to some extent impressed with the opinion that there really was some doubt in the case, and the life of the prisoner might probably have been spared, if she had not made the eonfesnon of her guilt. The case then, of course, assumed a very different aspect, the crime of the prisoner being very much aggravated by the persistent attempt she had made to fix it upon an innocent person ; ~and the Home Secretary did not feel himself justified in interfering with the course of the law. Since her conviction the wretched woman appears to have conducted herself very well, and she seems to be sincerely penitent, and to be prepared to undergo the penalty of the law. She is only twenty-eight years old, and is what may be considered a tall good-looking woman, evidently possessed of very great determination and courage. With regard to the other culprit, James Fletcher, who was convicted of the deliberate murder of one of the warders of the Chatham Convict Prison, where the prisoner was confined under a sen. team of seven years' penal servitude for a robbery accompanied by violence, it was felt from the first that the case was of such a description as to preclude all chance of the government interfering, and the culprit, who is a remarkably fine young man only 20 years of age, appears from the very moment of his apprehension to have been prepared for what be considered the inevitable result of his act. The execution of a woman at Maidstone appears to be almost unprecedented, no record of a similar occurrence having taken place, at all events within a very long period, being in existence. This execution will take place on Thursday morning at 12 o'clock.