THE HALL-HOUSTDN CASE.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 296, 23 October 1886, Page 2

THE HALL-HOUSTDN CASE.

Ciiristchurch, October 20. The jury in the poisoning case retired at 3.10 yesterday afternoon, and after seven minutes returned with a verdict of " Guilty '* as regards Hall, and "Not guilty" as regards Miss Houston. The foreman said the jury wished to say that Miss Houston left the Court without the slightest stain on her character. His Honor at once ordered the dis- ; charge of Miss Houston. In sentencing Hall the Judge said:— After long and patient investigation the jury have come to a conclusion which at once satisfies the demands of justice and protects innocence of the person accused, but not proved guilty. The crime of which you have been convicted is one of the most infamous that one has ever read of in the history of criminal proceedings. A young man recently married to a young wife, who had just become the mother of his child, a woman whom you treated to the word's eye with the consideration and respect that were due to her ; the woman whose bedside you visited every morning'with a deadly purpose ; the woman whom you saw dying, as I may call it, by inches, stepping on day after day and hour after hour to the fate your intentions consigned her; getting for yourself the passing reputation of a kind considerate, and good husband, while all the time uf these long months—it may be from the very hour you led her to the altar —you have been harboring the vile thought of sending her to her tomb. Anything I could say cannot sufficiently describe the detestable nature of your crime. There is no excuse whatever, such as we have read of in other cases of poisoning—that there were intrigues or sexual desire, or that you are a man played on by strong passions. There is nothing of the kind to extenuate the oifence. You have been guilty of worse than murder, and compared to this most murders are kind and considerate. In prosecuting your scheme your murder has been from week to week. lam bound to say a little, as I like to speak in strong terms to those who have fallen to the lowest depths of degredation, that I must in justice characterise your crime as it deserves to be characterised, and as an example for the rest of your fellow colonists, and say that yon have achieved the distinction of being the vilest of your sex. Among many cases of murder on record, seldom has a case occurred of so much moral guilt as yours, and had the law not been altered you would certainly have forfeited your life, and there would have been no chance of commutation of your sentence. As the law does not permit me to pass that sentence which would stamp 1 your crime with its true character, I pass upon you the heaviest sentence possible—that you be kept in penal servitude for the rest of your natural life.