British Miner and General Newsman : — 1862-11-08 (London, England)

THE PRISONERS UNDER SENTENCE OF DEATH.—On Friday afternoon the Sheriffs, Mr. Alderman J. C. Laurence and Mr. Hugh Jones, accompanied by Messrs. Farrar and Dirackrell, the Under-Sheriffs, and the Rev. Mr. Davis and Mr. Jonas, the Governor of Newgate proceeded to the cell in which the prisoner Robert dooper was confined, and the Chaplain announced to him that the Sheriffs had fixed Monday, the 17th inst. as the day for carrying out the sentence of the law; he also exhorted him to make the best use of the short time that remained to him in this world, and by a sincere repentance to endeavour to obtain pardon for the great sin he had committed. The wretched man appears to be quite prostrated by his position, and to feel an excessive terror at the thought of losing his life upon the scaffold. He has, never, it appears, attempted to cast any doubt upon the propriety of the verdict of the jury, but still he seems to think that there was a sort of justification for the act he committed in the conduct of the deceased. He has repeatedly stated that no one could tell what his feelings were at discovering that "his wife," as he always called deceased, was unfaithful to him. On his being reminded that she was not his wife, and that he had a wife living, he stated that, on account of his being in the army, he could not live with the woman whom he formerly married, and that they mutually agreed to separate; he had not seen her for many years, and thought she was dead at the time he contracted the second marriage with the deceased girl. This prisoner evidently entertains an .idea that mercy will be extended to him, and he has expressed an intention of sending his own statement of his case to the Home Secretary, and making an appeal to the Crown for mercy; but it is not probable, from the character of the crime, that this will be likely to have any effect. The prisoner has repeatedly stated since his conviction that on the day the fatal affair happened he went to Isleworth quite by chance, and he declares that he entertained no intention to do mischief to the deceased, but alleges that the object for which he carried the pistol about him was to destroy his own life. The other condemned culprit, Samuel Gardner, the sweep, who was convicted on Friday of the murder of his wife, appears to exhibit much more fortitude than his wretched companion, and it seems that he has all along persisted in declaring his innocence of the crime of which he was accused. It will be remembered that the circumstances of the case were very peculiar; but, although the jury were in deliberation more than an hour and a-half before they returned their verdict, it appears that 11 of them had made up their minds in a very short time that the evidence had established the guilt of the prisoner, and only one of them entertained any doubt upon the point. The Lord Chief Baron, who tried the prisoner, is understood to have expressed himself perfectly satisfied with the verdict, and the prisoner's attempt, if he be really guilty, to fix the crime upon an innocent person—a similar proceeding to which, it will be remembered, was adopted by the man Mullins, who was convicted of the murder of Mrs. Emslie—is evidently a great aggravation of his offence. A similar announcement to that which had been made on the previous day to Cooper was made to this prisoner by the officials on Saturday afternoon. He heard it with perfect calmness, and merely oi ery ed that he was prepared to die, and did not utter any of those protestations of innocence that were made by him after his trial. On Friday evening, after the jury had delivered their verdict, the girl Elizabeth Humbler was liberated from custody, and taken away from Nowgate in the charge of her mother.