Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1879-03-22 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

THE RELEASE OF WILLIAM HABRON.  William Habron, who was wrongfully convicted of the Whalley Range murder, which Peace confessed to have committed, was discharged from Portland Prison on Tuesday, Habron, who knew nothing of the free pardon granted to him, was on Tuesday morning informed that he was about to be removed, with two other convicts about to be liberated. He was prepared for the journey and set off for Mil!bank. By orders from the Home Office no communication was made to him respecting the cause of his removal, and the whole proceedings were kept secret. Habron did not seem excited. The two officers who travelled with him were ordered to observe strict silence. Habron's conduct and his health had alike been good during his incarceration.  It had been arranged that Mr. Deakin, the employer of the three Habrons, who has all through William's severe ordeal neither flinched in his belief in his innocence nor relaxed in his endeavours to procure his release, should come up from Manchester, meet Habron at Millbank, and take him under his charge to his relations in Ireland. Mr. Deakin was accordingly waiting at Millbank to receive him when he arrived. On Habron's arrival at Millbank, the fact that he had been granted a free pardon was communicated to him, together with a statement of the reasons which had actuated the Home Secretary in recommending it. (Beyond hearing from a fellowprisoner at Portland, who was recently admitted, that Peace had confessed the Whalley Range murder, this was the first and only intimation of what had been done in reference to his case that the poor fellow had received). The first thing William Hebron said to Mr. Deakin in the cell at Millbank when he was able to speak, which for some minutes he could not do, was to express his thankfulness that at last justice had been done to him, and he added, "You know, master, that we never disgraced you." He was so much overcome by the news that he was unable to to take off his prison dress and put on ordinary clothes, and had to be assisted by Mr. Deakin. As soon as the necessary formalities had been completed Mr. Deakin and Hebron left the gaol. During the afternoon they took train for Manchester, where they arrived late on Tuesday night, Habron being taken to the house of Mr. Deakin's brother, where the two brothers, John and Frank Hebron, were waiting. The meeting between the three brothers was a very affecting one. The poor fellow seemed to be in good health, but showed in his features some traces of the suffering he has undergone. Hebron has stated that after the sentence of death he suffered intense mental agony, although he was borne up by a consciousness of his innocence, and hoped that his life might be spared, and that he would ultimately be proved to the world to be guiltless. "In William Hebron, at least," (says the Daily News) "there is a great fund of simple faith and steadfastness. never believed,' he often repeats, that I could be brought in guilty, and when I was condemned I felt sure I could not be hanged, for, as I told the priest, God knows, you know, and I know that I am innocent of this crime, and an innocent man will never be allowed to suffer for the guilty.' It was probably this steady faith in justice being ultimately done that sustained the poor young fellow's heart and brain for the ten weeks during which he lay under sentence of death, a trial severe enough to crack the strongest nerves, and how much more terrible to a lad of eighteen I" —Habron's respite, which he received about three weeks after he was sentenced, was a great relief to him, but he continued to feel great anxiety as to what might be his fate until he was informed that his sentence of death had been commuted to penal servitude for life. After his removal to Portland he continued to hope that his innocence might be ultimately declared, and that enabled him to bear with some oosupcstre hie Kamm ao a (lonia