The Dewsbury Chronicle, and West Riding Advertiser. — 1882-04-01 (Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England)

THE CONVICT LAAISON.  A telegram from 'Washington on Monday, says :—" The leading clergy of New York have petitioned for Lamaou's reprieve." On Monday morning Mr. A. W. Mills, the condemned man's solicitor, received a letter from him with reference to business matters, and in it the convict as strenuously as ever asserts his innocence of the crime of which he has been found guilty. He makes no allusion whatever to the efforts being made on his behalf by his friends, nor does he refer at all to the subject of a reprieve. A deputation from those who organised the meeting of Americans at Exeter Hall on Tuesday, in favour of the reprieve of Dr. Limson, on tbe ground of Insanity, waited upon Mr. Mills, the prisoner's solicitor, and presented a copy of the resolutions to him. The deputation afterwards proceedeal to the American Embassy, and there obtained the assurance of the American Minister that the resolutions should he forwarded to the Home Office. Mrs. Lamson in the afternoon visited her husband In Wandsworth Gaol. A newspaper correspondent, who anew Dr. ',lesson during the Servian ear, has written to Mn. Lamson testifying to the quiet, unebtrnsive courage he displayed during the campaign, and stating that he wen the good opinion of every one by his urbanity and indefatigable zeal in the cause of h,.manlty. Without questioning the finding of the jury, the writer cannot nesoolete one so shrewd with plans exesuted so clumsily, and thinks if hi 3 friends had been heard on his behalf, their evidence would have conveyed a different impression of his previous character geacrelly to the jury. The memorial for the respite of Dr. Lamson was eaten. ively signed in Bournemouth and neighbourhood. and was sent in on Wednesday morning to the Home Office. The memorialists state that previous to the alleged murder, prisoner was insane. They believe he has hereditary predisposition to insanity, and state that his grandmother, aunt, and great grand uncle died in Bloomingdale Asylum, New York. They add that for a considerable time previous to December last, symptoms of insanity were detected in the prisoner's conduct, and he was regarded as insane by many of his acquaintances. The memorialists believe prisoner's insanity was not always active ;and apparent, but that his hereditary insanity was developed and increased by constant and excessive subcutaneous injections of morphia and atrophia, so that he became unconscious of the nature and consequences of his actions while under the influence or suffering from the effects of the injections. It is believed by the memorialist3 that the use of morphia and atrophia in such quantities as were taken by prisoner, acting upon an hereditary predisposition to insanity, would be sufficient to produce mental disease of such nature as to render him, at frequent intervals, irrespeaeible for his actions. It had been proved that he had both large quantities of atrophia and morphia on December 3rd, and for several due previously had made large injections, and the memorialists contend that Dr. Lamson was then so insane as to be unconscious of his actions, or, if conscious of them, was mot aware of their nature, and was irresponsible for their results. The plea of Insanity was not set up at the trial, fcr the reason that ne prisoner's family and relatives had coed reason to believe the medical evidence in support of the theory of the prosecution that Percy Malcolm John died from a dose of ;ecordta was erroneous. The prayer of the memorial was "And your petitioners humbly pray that an enquiry may he directed to be made into the state of the prisoner's mini at the time of the alleged murder. and that Her Most Gracious Majesty may be advised to grant a respite of the execution until a report under such enquiry heel been made." Dr. Lamson was visited by his solicitor on Tnursday morning. The convict is much improved in appearance. He spoke little of himself, but asked many questions regarding his relatives