CHARLOTTE WINSOR.

Southland Times, Volume VII, Issue 533, 3 August 1866, Page 3

CHARLOTTE WINSOR.

(From the "Home News.") The Court of Exchequer Chamber has confirmed the unanimous decision of the 15 judges in the case of Charlotte Winsor. This notorious person is now left a third time for execution. She was first tried at Exeter in March of last year, together with a woman named Harris, before Mr Baron Channell, and the circumstances of this trial have been the origin of all the subsequent proceedings. It appears that it began on a Friday morning and lasted until 7 o'clock the following evening. The jury, having been charged by the judge, then retired, and were locked up until near midnight. At last Baron Chanuell sent for them, and, finding there was no prospect of obtaining a verdict, discharged them at once, but ordered the prisoners to be kept in custody until the next assizes. The motive for doing, so was, no doubt, one of convenience, the next day being Sunday, all the other business at Exeter having been completed, acd the judge being expected at Bodmin. Accordingly the two prisoners tried again before Mr. Justice Keating, at the Summer Assizes, on the 28th of July, when Harris, being admitted as Queen's evidence, gave testimony which led to Winsor's conviction. Winsor was thereupon sentenced to be hanged ; the scaffold was already erected, the grave was dug, and Calcraffc was in the gaol, when, on the very evening before the day for the execution, a reprieve, founded on a writ of error, was received by the authorities. The writ alleged, in fact, that, having once been tried for her life, the prisoner could not again be put in peril on the some charge, and moreover, that Harris ought to have been acquitted before she could be admitted as a witness. These objections have been raised before Mr Justice Keating and overruled by him, but they were considered sufficient to justify a reconsideration of the whole question by the Court of Queen's Bench. It was argued in due course before the Lord Chief Justice and three other judges, who were all- of opinion that the conviction was good. The prisoner was remauded to Exeter, and the execution would have taken place forthwith, but Sir George Grey, still entertaining scruples about the discretion exercised by Mr Baron Channell, requested the whole body of judges to meet and discuss the matter. The result was that all expressed their concurrence with the judgment of the Queen's Bench, and this time it seemed that nothing could rescue Winsor from the fate she deserved so richly. " A certain Monday was fixed for the execution, and on the Saturday night Calcraffc was in Exeter gaol, the grave was again dug, and the scaffold a second time erected, when another respite was received." the Attorney- General had been induced to issue his fiat remitting the case to the Court of Exchequer Chamber aud this court has now finally pronounced against the prisoner's appeal. All its members were, in fact, solemnly committed to this view of the case, but it comprised neither of the judges who had presided at the trials, nor any judges of the Queen's Bench, who had twice rejected the allegation of error. [The Home Secretary has decided that the life of the wretched woman shall be spared. The seetence of death has been commuted to penal servitude for life.]