BURIED ALIVE FOR 10 YEARS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1084, 17 August 1912, Page 4

BURIED ALIVE FOR 10 YEARS.

TERRIBLE SENTENCE ON BARON PATERNO. Baron Paterno was on Thursday, June 27th, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder ol Countess Trigona, a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elena. The first ten years will be passed iu solitary confinement. The sentence is the maximum imposed for murder, and is equivalent to being buried alive. Baron Paterno will spend the first seven years ol his confinement iu a cell 6ft 6iu long by sft 6iu wide by 6ft high. Here he will sleep, eat and work. Food will be passed to him through a trap iu the cell door. The aoor itself is only qit 6in high. Toe only illumination is furnished by a small grated window, h;gn in the wall, .vhich also ventilates the ceil. Baron Paterno will not be allowed tc speak, nor can the warder speak to him. He will be

allowed to see his parents once a year. Once a mouth will be ..permitted to walk for an hour in he prison yard. If he survives for seven years, the prisoner will then be allowed to work with other criminals, but always in silence. He can then receive visits every six mouths. F'ew prisoners survive seven years’ solitary confinement, and those who are still alive at the end of that petiod are invariably insane. The silence and isolation

are sufficient to shatter the strongest intellect. Baron Paterno listened to his sentence unmoved. Queen Ltieua left Rome for Pisa in order not to be present in the capital during the last scene of the trial. Countess Trigoua was one of her Majesty's intimate friends, and her tragic death altected the Queen greatly, Baron Patetuo’s parents arrived in Rome the night he was sentenced from Palermo, and his aged mother pleaded for admission to the court, but the judge refused. Many well-dressed women attempted to enter the court room, and the police had difficulty in keeping back the crowd which surrounded the building. Signor Vecchiui, the prisoner’s counsel, finished his impassioned appeal to the jury for mercy shortly alter seven o’clock. He described Baron Paterno as a . feeble-minded youth. The prisoner who was deeply moved, called the ; lawyer into his cage, and fell weeping into his arms. The judge’s summing up occupied an hour. Baron Paterno [ seemed more hopeful and kept interjecting remarks. The jury re- ' tired at 8.30, and the prisoner was taken to the 'subterranean cells during their deliberations- [ When the jury retired the doors , of the court room were opened to 1 the crowd of waiting lawyers, [ journalists and society woman. A , great throng filled the halls of the j law cuuits and the banks of the . Tiber.

The jury r were instructed to answer three questions : Whether Baron Paterno was guilty of murder ; whether he was feebleminded ; whether there were extenuating circumstances. At 9.30 the prisoner was brought back to bis cage, attended by six carabineers. The judge, the jury and the prison physician came into court. The lawyers speculated aloud as to the length of the sentence, and the judge threatened to have them expelled unless they kept quiet. The jury announced that Baron Paterno was guilty ; that he was uot feeble-miuded ; that there were no exlenuatiug circumstances. The judge thereupon sentenced him to imprisonment tor life.