SCENE AT AN EXECUTION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 97, 24 April 1879, Page 4

SCENE AT AN EXECUTION.

The American papers give a graphic account of the execution of Benjamin Hunter, who was hanged for the murder of a music-seller in Camden, New Jersey. The execution took place in public. On the Sunday previous Hunter was ia a " cage" with his gaoler Niason, and talked very freely. He complained of chill, anddrew a carpet round his feet. He remained in this position for some time, keeping up a perpetual rubbing. His gaoler at last suspected something, and asked him to move. He did not do so, and the man gave him a push, when it was found ha was sitting in a pool of blood. The culprit with a piece of tin had racked fche skin off his instep, and cut the arteries. A spittooD, which he had managed to secrete beneath him, was full of blood, and he was in a sinking state. He was handcuffed and a doctor sent for, who found the culprit's pulse at 148. He kept his teeth co tight together that it was impossible to force them apart, and the doctor gave him injections of whisky, but it was thought he could not hold out to the end. When the time for carrying out the sentence arrived, Hunter, it is sai<f, was entirely unconscious, cither from the effects of whisky, which had been administered to keep him alive, or by being drugged. When the officials came on the scaffold they appeared to be half carrying and half dragging an apparently lifeless form, which was placed on a chair and held there. Three men then lifted Hunter up, so that the noose could be better adjusted, after which the jerk was given, and the culprit partially disappeared. To the horror of the spectators, it was found that Hunter's feet rested on the fl oor below. When the officials saw how matters stood, they quickly caught hold of the rope and hoisted the unhappy man five feet above the ground. The crowd at this point were very boisterous and threatening. After hanging half-ao-hour the body was cut down and given to the relatives.