EXECUTION OF AH LEE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 449, 9 November 1880, Page 3

EXECUTION OF AH LEE.

Tie Otago Daily Times of November Cfch thus describes the execution of the convict. >\h Lee: —The criminal Ah Lee J aid the last penalty of the law at •oip'ht a.m. yesterday. He met his fate with the characteristic indifference of his race, Hie only evidence of emotion being •exhibited by a slight. muscular tremor when vti. the.gallows and just before the falling of the drop. The night previous lie passed in unbroken sleep, and partook in the morning of his usual breakfast. Bishop Nevill, whose efforts on behalf of the criminal have been, as is well known, Untiring, withdrew from Ins final interview, with him a few minutes before -eight. Without needless delay Ah Lee was pinioned, and at once 'conducted to the gallows in the prison yard, where Mr Torrance offered up a prayer, having previously asked him if he had anything to say regarding the murder. Ah Lee, however, again asserted his innocence. The arrangemei.ts for the execution were '-of the most perfect; description. Precisely at £ a.m. the drop fell, and withiout a 'straggle or convulsion of any kind Ah Lee ceased tr> live. The body rein ained suspended for an hour, and was then taken down. At noon the Coroner «(Drllocken) -held an inquest upon the | body. This was of a formal character. Mr Gordon, the sheriff, deposed that Ah Lee'had been convicted of murder at the previous session of the Supreme Court, •for which sentence of death had been passed upon him by His Honor Mr Justice Williams. Mr Caldwell, Governor of the Gaol, deposed to sentence having -been carried into effect by a person duly -authorised by the β-heriff to act as executioner. He stated that Ah. Lee was •about 24 years of age, a native of the ■neighborhood of Canton, unmarried, a miner by occupation, and a Confucian by xeligious belief. Dr Burns, the gaol surgeon, certified to the mode of death -and its instantnheoasnesh. The jury returned a verdict of justifiable homicide.