Year: 1859

N'N CSSOhilIiS quite 700 common In
winch criminals evidently proved guilty of
murder are convicted of manslaughter only
by Juries whose compassion outweighs their
sense of justice An instance oftbis sort oc-
currence recently in Dane county, Illinois. A
German named Melchion Stopped had been
proved guilty of deliberate murder. 1t is said
that there was not defective point in the
evidence to hang doubt upon, but the Jury
returned verdict of manslaughter Judge
Dixon, in pronouncing sentence according to
the verdict, gave vent to his indignation in
plain language. Addressing the prisoner, he
said:


gu have been brought to the bar of Jus.
tlce charged with the high crime of murder.
ou have had trial according to the forms
OF law, and have by jury been adiudged
guilty OF manslaughter in the third degree.
with the facts in your case l have nothing
TO DO and such is my position that until the
present time could express no opinion upon
them. Now, however can do so without
infringing upon your rights or those of the
public


In my opinion, If any man was ever guilty
OF wilful, premeditated murder, it was YOU.
IN taking the life of John Ritmeir The proof
IN your case established it clearly, positively
and beyond reasonable doubt. it showed
| conclusively that for days before YOU mur-
dered him, you premeditated and designed
doing so, That on the fatal Sunday nirht.
arming yourself for the bloody work with a
butcher knife, and bringing with you FIVE or
SIX friends pledged to your assistance in case
OF necessity, you awaited and waylaid him
on the public highway He came: You met
stopped, and informed him that he must die
there, as he stood that you would stab him
through and through. Alone and unprotect-
ed he fled for his life you and your coadu
tors pursued him. In this race for his life he
ran distance of nearly half mile he fell.
you overlook him, and whilst he was fallen,
ito use your own language) stabbed him
through and through with the butcher
knife, of which he died. All this you did
without the shadowso provocation, without
one circumstance to excuse or palliate, but
out OF the wickedness and malice of YOUR
own heart


Such is the brief history of this horrid trag-
edy and your connection with it. 1t can be
called by no better name than midnight as
sassination. Under such circumstances and
with such proofs. you have been found guilty
of one Of the lesser degrees of manslaughter.
As you are a stranger, unacquainted with our
laws and language, for your information |
should say that the crime of muRler once ex.
isted in our laws, and was recognized in our
courts. 1t was once even punished in Wis
consin but now, l fear such is no longer the
case. Criminals of your cast nre put upon
their trial only to be relieved from the penal.
ty of their crimes. If Ritmer, the deceased,
had been the owner ofa malicious but favor
lite dog and that dog had attacked you in
the night time and you had killed it, and he
had instituted a prosecution against you for
so doing, twelve citizens could probably have
been found that would sit and listen with
stern indignation at the story of such n vio-
lation of his rights; or if not that, they would
at least have entertained grave doa:ts as to
the propriety of your conduct But take his
life in the manner you did, the case becomes
different; it is then Plain and clear you are
innocent you must be acquitted or very
slightly punished.


For the offence of which you have been
convicted lhe highest punishment prescribed
by law is four years in the penitentiary. In
teing obliged to pass the sentence upon you
feel as if every rule of reason, law and JUS
tice is violated. The sentence of the law in
your case is that you be punished by confne.
ment in the State Prison at hard labor for the
period offour years from this day at noon,
and that you be solitariy imprisoned for the
first ten days of each and every month of
said term"