PASSING SENTENCE OF DEATH ON DR. LAMSON.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1070, 6 May 1882, Page 2

PASSING SENTENCE OF DEATH ON DR. LAMSON.

The following is an account of the conclusion of the trial of Dr. Latnson the Wimbledon poisoner, whohassince been executed : —The jury were absent about thirty-seven minutes, and were obviously prepared Jwith a verdict of guilty when they returned. The prisoner had been absent for most of the time, but had returned to the dock to sign, while yet his signature was untainted, some family documents presented to him by his solicitor. His wife, who had been in Court during his own Counsel’s speech, and had afterwards remained in one of the waiting-rooms, had been taken away. The Court was crowded, and not a few ladies had nerved themselves for a possible, and even probable, scene of painful excitement. After the jury were seated, and until the Judge came in, the prisoner was seated at the back of the dock, and a thoughtful constable planted himself between him and the jury, so that he might not gather from their appearance what was to everyone else so obvious. When the Judge was seated the prisoner came forward with folded arms, bearing himself up with evident determination to acquit himself with courage. But during the tedious preliminary of calling over the names of the jury, the arms unfolded and the hands were crossed nervously on the front of the dock. When the verdict of “ Guilty ” was pronounced the wretched man started as if shot, and for a moment covered his face with his hands. Then he nervously pressed his hands once more on the front of the dock, and leant forward for support. So intense was the excitement occasioned by the prisoner’s demeanour among those who could see him, that some failed to observe that in the gallery there was slight applause, which had to be checked by the usher. When the prisoner again endeavored to stand upright it seemed as if he would fall, but the anxiety of the police officers—-

one on each side and one behind—to give him support roused him a little, and. he seemed to wish them to leave him alone. When asked if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon him, he folded his arms, held himself upright, and said, in a firm voice, “ Merely to protest my innocence before God.” During a brief, terrible pause, the prisoner, standing with downcast head, and again seeking support on the front of the dock, was observed furtively to watch the horribly significant action of the Judge as he placed the black cap on his head, and then to shut his eyes, to change color, and to show signs of a disposition to swoon as the Judge began to pronounce the dread sentence. Recovering himself again at the renewed consciousness of the conspicuous support being rendered him by the police officers, he bowed alightly at Mr Justice Hawkins’s statement that the law commanded him to pass the sentence of death. The Judge mercifully refrained from aggravating the torture of the prisoner with many words, the few he uttered were apparently as trying to him to say as to the more sensitive of the audience to hear. The formal sentence, with its horrid detail as to the disposal of the body in the precincts of the the prison, was soon pronounced, and the doomed man was half led, half carried out of the dock. It is stated that Lamson preserves, upon the whole a very calm demeanour, and seems to tothinka great deal more of his friends and relations then he does of the doom to which he had been sentenced. His aged father has had an interview with him. and remained some time in the condemned cell, but it is said the culprit made no allusion whatever to the crime for which he has to suffer death and seemed to be perfectly dazed, and almost without knowledge as to what had been transpiring during the past few months. Mrs Lamson. accompanied bj a friend, visited her husband on March 20 in his cell. Both were deeply moved, but not a word was said by Lamson which would lead to the supposition that he would make any admission as to his guilt.