Year: 1873

in his seat and addressed the court as
follows The trial OF Frank Wal
worth for the murder of Mansfield
Tracy WaIworth has terminated by a
| verdict by an impartial jury Of muir
der in the second degree. 1t is my
| duty. and | now move that the Court
pass sentence upon the prisoner in ac-
cordance with the verdict pronounced
against him.


wALWoRTH NOTHING TO SAY.


"Walworth, arise" said Mr.. Sparks,
the Clerk. as soon as the District At
torney had taken his seat.


Young Waiworth did as hidden,
holding his hat carleesly in his right
hand and throwing his head back at
that peculiar angle, his face at the
same time having that peculiarly
semi-sneering expression so notably
characteriziug him throughout the
| trial. He looked Mr.. sparks steadily
in the eye.


"What have you to say" continued
Mr.. Sparks, following the formula in
such cas es why Judgment of the Court
should not now be pronounced against
you according to law :"


Walwarth brought his left hand,
which had been hanging by his side,
| up to his face, Strengthening himself
back and moved slightly from his DO
stion. II certainly seemed for mo-
| menL'as if he intended to say some
| thing. Not a word, however, escaped
| his lips, but he compressed them II
anything closer and looked at the
Judge as much as to say, Il have got
nothing 10 say"


PASSING SENTENCE.


Jude Davis, as if in doubt whether
the prisoner intended to say anything,
waited fully Ealf 4 minute, aud then
| proceeded TO pass sentence. At times
The voice tremhled, and once or twice
it seemed as though he would choke
in tile depth of bis emotion. He spoke
with great slowness, and at any time
a pin drop could have been heard in
the room. He spoke as follows:--
"Walworth, | have never been called
upon i'm my life to perform more
painful duty than the one which de-
wolves upon me now. After trial III


which YOU have had the benefit Of
| counsel not surpassed, If equalied, in
ability and learning, and OF a jury Sc
| lected substantially by yourself, you
| have been convicted of the crime of
murder in the second degree. The
| punishment of that crime is fixed by
statute. No discretion is left to the
ICourt. 1t is severe, but as the Court
| deems it is none too severe. 1t separ-
ates you from your friends and your
family and consigns you for life to the
State Prison, from which you proha-
bly can have no hope of escape unless,
possibly, at some future day, through
Executive clemency. The evidence
in your case, in my Judgment, fully


JUSTIFIED THE VERDICT


which has been rendered against you,
and [ have fearful doubts that il
would not have jutified verdict Of
murder in the first degree, for can
not conceive what motives you could
have had in preparing yourself as you
did with pistol loaded, coming to
New York, seeking an interview with
YOUR father and almost Immediately
shooting him down, except upon the
idea that YOU had deliberately deter
mined that his life should be termina'
ted by your hand. hope, however.
that the Searcher of all hearts
can perceive from your conduct
that you were not animated
by that reconciliation and
deliberation which the statute now re-
quires to constitute the crime in the
first degree. The duty | am to per
form is rendered doubly al fl by
the fact that you belong t. u family
honored and distinguished both i'll the
civil and military ANNALS of your coun-
try. Your grandfather OH the one
hand was, as has been truly said by
YOUR counsel, for long time the chief
equity Judge of this great State, ana
me left "A record for purity and lntegFl-
ty and for all the private virtues that
advance and elevate man second 10
none who have adorned so high sta
ton. And, on the other hand,
grandfather on the mothers side fell
nobly fighting for his country on the
field of battle, and left record OF
which all his descendants may be
nroud. 1t is with grief that L fee
bound to express my sorrow that the
memory of those great and distin-
pnished ancestors should not have re-
straIued YOU from the commission OF
such a crime as that of which you are
convicted. Your poor mother had in
deed. great cause te regret her relations
for the father whom you have slaln.-
You also. undoubtedly, hadgreat cause
to feel not aggrieved merely but
ashamed and indignant at the long
course of outrages toward her ana To-
ward his family; but, bad as he was,
you were not to be the


kvENGER OF THESE WRONGS.


He had done nothing to forfeit his
Iifa oven TO the laws of his country,
and least of all had he done
anI.tbirp TO forfeit his life
at the hands of his own eldest son
When 7 look back at that moment
when YOU constituted yourself his ex-
ecutic ner and slew him in that room
with no one present but yourself, |
canrot but feel that that death must
have been.


MORE HORRIBLE THAN THOUSAND


DEATHS


in any other form. Called by you TO
vour presence, apparently for the pur-
noses of a peaceful interview to settle
tamjly difficulties invited to a seat in
your room and apparently almost in
stantlv confronted with weapon of
death in his own sons hands, what
thouuhts must have rushed upon him
at that moment, when he found that
the person whom he expected had
come 10 him for the purpose oil peace