The Potteries Examiner : — 1872-03-16 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE SENTENCE.  His Lordship then said i—William Frederick lorry, you have been convicted of the crime of wilful murder by a jury who have heard your case most attentively, and who could not, by any possibility, have come to any other conclusion. When I add that the person you are convicted of murdering is your wife, your case becomes still more distressing. I have no doubt at all that those palliating circumstances stated by the learned counsel are true. Jealousy was operating upon your mind, and you had given yourself up to drink, the influence of which on your mind was such as scarcely to leave you responsible. I have no doubt all these circumstances operated upon you, and incited you to the commission of this awful Crime; but even if this woman had been the most guilty of women, it was a terrible and awful thing to shoot her in the way you did under your father's roof. While she was enjoying his protection, you suddenly, and without allowing her time for preparation, sent her into eternity. The crime you have committed is the greatest known to the law, and I will not add one word to the agony you are suffering, but in vindication of the law, and in warning to every one in your position, I ;Lad that this is no excuse for a deliberate act of homicide like this. The law, which seeks to vindicate society, and to give protection to her Majesty's subjects, sentences you; the sentence passed is not mine, it is the sentence which the law attaches to the most awful of crimes. It is tile sentence of the law wffich follows the verdict of the jury. Sentence of death was then passed in the usual form.  During the whole of the trial the prisoner maintained a wonderfully self-possessed appearance except during the delivery of smite of the touching parts of Mr. Seymour's address, when he was much affected and wept very bitterly. After the sentence he walked out of the dock with a firm step. We are informed that there seemed to be a disposition on the part of the jury to acquit the prisoner on the capital offence. The judge was evidently solicitous to impress upon the jury that the crime upon which they had to give a verdict was that of wilful murder. But it is somewhat astonishing after the very obvious intimation on the part of the Judge, that the jury might be justified in recommending the prisoner to mercy, that they did not take the hint given. As there are many speculations being made as to whether the extreme sentence will be carried into effect, we may state it 88 our own opinion, that it is not improbable that a commutation of the sentence will take place, especially as the Judge in his last words to the jury, referred so pointedly to the "recommendation for mercy.' During the last year, out'of thirteen persons condemned to death, only four were executed: and when such criminals as Watson. and the young woman, Edmonds, and this week , again, Tern, for the murder of a fellow lodger at Birmin4ham, are reprieved, it would be surprising if the law was carried out in the case of a man of whom the Judge says in passing sentence, "I have no doubt those palliating circumstances stated by the learned counsel are true. Jealousy was operating upon your mind, and you had given yourself up to drink, the influence of which on your mind was such as scarcely to leave you responsible." As the Judge who has tried the condemned criminal is generally consulted by the Home Secretav where a ' reprieve is appealed for, and his advice is usually taken, there seems to be little doubt that this unfortunate young man may have that time for "prayer and preparation for eternity" for which his counsel so eloquently pleaded.