EXECUTION OF MERCER.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 282, 7 May 1875, Page 2

EXECUTION OF MERCER.

John Mercer suffered the last penalty of the law this morning shortly after eight o’clock. From the time of his entrance into Lyttelton Gaol until the moment of his appearance on the scaffold he preserved the same indifferent demeanor throughout. The attentions of the different ministers of religion apparently failed to produce the slightest effect on his nature, and he met his death in the same callous manner as he had received his sentence. The Revs Knowles, Wills, and Ferguson (the latter being of the Presbyterian denomination) visited him several times. The latter gentleman was with him for two hours and a half yesterday evening, and again visited him this morning at seven o’clock, remaining with him until the sentence had been carried into effect, but all his efforts to induce him to confess the crime were fruitless. Mr Ferguson wrote out a short appeal, which he read over to Mercer, asking him to acknowledge his guilt, and the prisoner wrote at the bottom the words: “ I have not done this crime, John Mercer.” Mr Ferguson then told that him in less than an hour from that time, he would be in the presence of his Maker, and asked him if he would not erase the word “not.” But this the prisoner utterly refused to accede to. He also said, “ What is the use of my saying that I am guilty ? I shall be hanged all the same.” He stated this morning that he had passed the most comfortable night’s rest of any that he had had during his stay in the gaol. Previous to leaving his cell for the last time, he engaged in conversation with his attendants in his usual manner, apparently undismayed at the approach of his fate. As he walked towards the scaffold, he smiled sardonically on the few spectators present in the gaol yard, and ascended the steps, where the executioner was awaiting him, with a firm gait. Whilst the prisoner was standing with the fatal noose around his neck, Air Ferguson engaged in prayer for a short time, after which Alercer asked permission to speak, which being accorded, he said, “Well, good-bye, gentlemen, I know the Lord will have mercy on my soul.” As the cap was being pulled over his face, lie muttered something, the last three words of the sentence sounding like “ an innocent man.” The bolt was then drawn, and the wretched murderer was launched into eternity. Although the drop was fully four feet in length, yet the neck was not broken by the fall, and for about four minutes signs of life still remained in the body. After the body had been hanging nearly half an hour, it was cut down, and the usual inquest was held, and a verdict in accordance with the facts was returned. The deceased it appears was a native of Edinburgh, but he was very reluctant to give any information as to his antecedents. He stated in Court on the occasion of his trial, in answer to a question from the Registrar that his age was thirty-one years.