THE HALL CASE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1375, 20 October 1886, Page 2

THE HALL CASE.

The Judge having summoned up in this case yesterday, the jury, after a retirement of five minutes, returned into Court with a verdict of guilty against Thomas Ball and not guilty against Margaret Grahame Houston, adding that, la their opinion, the latter left the dock without a stain on her character.

A murmur of applause manifested itself but was promptly suppressed. Mia Houston was at once discharged. The Judge, in sentencing Hall, addressed him as follows .'—Prisoner at tbs Bar, —After a long and patient investigation, the jury hare come to the conclusion which at onoa sitlsfias the ends of public justice and ensures the protection of persons accused, but not guilty. The orima of which you have been convicted is one of the moat inhuman and most detestable that one has ever read or heard of. Yon were a young man recently married to a young wife—that young wife the mother of yonr first child. She was a woman whom you treated iu the world’s eye with all due consideration and respect due to her. She was a woman whose bed yon visited every morning, with the deadly poison in your hand, a woman whom you saw day by day, hour by hour, stepping nearer to that grave to which you were endeavoring to consign her. Yon were getting for yourself a possible reputation for being a kind and considerate husband, while all through those long months you were seeking her destruction and her death. From the very hoar you led her to the altar the thought was in jonr heart of sending her to her grave. No language that I can use will sufficiently describe the detestable character of tr.e crime of which you have been found guilty. You bad no excuse of intrigue o: the temptation of sexual desire, such as we read of in poisoning cases, to urge you on to the commission of this crime. Most murderers are kind when compared to your crime, for you have murdered from day to day, from week 10 week. I am bound to say, though I make it a rule not to speak in strong terms to any one fallen to the deep depths of human degradation, still, in the interests of public justice, is It my duty to say that you have achieved in the annals of crime the position of being the vilest criminal ever this colony. If the law as applied to the crime for which yon have been found guilty wss not mercifni, you would most certainly have forfeited yonr life. The law does not permit me to pass the sentence of death upon you, but I shall proceed to pass a sentence which will stamp the detestation and horror in which the crime of which yon have been fonnd guilty is held in the oommnnity. I now pass upon yon the next dread sentence of the law, which is that you be kept in penal servitude for the rest of your natural life. Mr Joynt asked the Attorney-General whether he intended to proceed with the charges of forgery against the prisoner. The Attorney-General said he had not yet made up his mind, but would inform him on Monday next. His Honor pointed out that the jury was summoned for Tuesday next, bnt not Monday. The Attorney-General said that he would Inform hh Honor of the course he intended to pursue on Tuesday next. The jury were then discharged with the thanks of their Queen and country for their services.

The Court at once adjourned till Tues day next.