Widnes Examiner. — 1883-12-08 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

THE TRIAL OF O'DONNELL : SCENE IN COURT. Patrick O'Donnell, charged with the murder of James Carey, the Irish informer, was found guilty at the Central Criminal Court on Saturday, and sentenced to be hanged. The Observer, describing the closing scenes of the trial, states that while the judge was passing sentence, O'Donnell stood at the front of the dock, entirely self-possessed, and occasionally turning his bead to look up into the gallery, as if in quest of a friend, or expecting some demonstration. Sen..tepee over, the warders, who had closed around him, Are about to remove him, when he waved tkem back with his right band. "Wait a minute," said he, "my lord, may I speak ?" "Not now," was the answer, and already he was being taken away, when he broke loose for a socond to wave his arms above his head. "Three cheers for old Ireland !" he cried; " Down with Queen Victoria!" By this time six or seven powerful men had seized him, and he was struggling violently. "Three cheers for America," he went on to cry out. "Curse the Saxons; down with the judge ;" and as he was carried out of court by force, and before the door was shut upon him, he could be heard pouring forth blasphemies and execrations, of which it was difficult to catch the exact words, and the sound of which was instantly lost as the door was shut to. If any of the jury bad remained in doubt to the last moment, they must at once have realised how utterly untruthful had been the instructions upon which Mr. Russell's defence had been grounded. THE MURDER OF AN OLD WOMAN: BUNGLING EXECETIoN.—The man Henry Dutton, sentenced to death at Liverpool Assizes for the murder of his wife's grandmother, attended what is known as the "condemned sermon " at Kirkdale Gaol on Sunday. The chaplain, at the culprit's request, drew the attention of the prisoners to the dangers of drink, ungovernable temper, and hasty marriage, to which three things the wretched man no doubt attributed his position. At Kirkdale prison, on Monday, Dutton was hanged. Binns, the newly appointed executioner, performed the talk of pinioning the criminal in a " bungling " manner, and on the scaffold conducted himself in such a way as to induce a juror to question his sobriety. The sobriety of the executioner, however, was certified, The gaol surgeon, at the inquest, strongly condemned Binns's method of procedure, which he said was "clumsy and inefficient." Death had resulted from slow strangulation, as the executioner had used too thick a rope and Riven too short a drop to dislocate the vertebrie The jury found their verdict in accordance with the surgeon's evidence.—Binns, the hangman, has given to the world an explanation of the delay which took place at the execution. He alleges that the convict was " ready " no less than four minutes before eight o'clock, and was kept waiting until he was seen to be fainting. Then, without waiting longer for the Governor's signal—for which he had asked three times—the hangman finished 14 task. He denies that he was in the least affected byliquor. A correspondent of the Times indignantly calls attention to the " exhibition " of Binns in a public-house on Sunday night in Liverpool, and says there "is no disgrace bigger than this in our national life."