Broadside entitled 'Trial and Sentence'

Transcription

Trial and Sentence.

A Full and Particular Account of the Trial and Sen
tence of JAMES CAMPBELL, who is to be
Executed, at Edinburgh, on Wednesday the 19th
January 1825, for Assault and Robbery, in broad
day light in Nicolson Street in Edinburgh on the
17th of August last.

AT Edinburgh, on Monday the 13th December, 1824, JAMBS
CAMPBELL was placed at the bar of the High Court of
Justiciary, charged with assaulting Mr John Hcrner, in Nicolson
Street, on the 17th of August, in broad day, and then and there
robbing him of a Gold Watch-chain, two Seals, and Watch-Key.
The prisoner pleaded Guilty of the robbery, but he was unconsious
of having struck Mr Morner.

The Lord Justice Clerk, in warning the unfortunate young man
of the situation in which he stood, alluded to the commutation of
punishment of the punishment; of the men who were to have suf-
fered death on Wednesday next, which was not, he said, to drawn
into a precedent.

The Solicitor General said, the case was one of such a nature
that he could not restrict the libel; at the same rime, the Learned
Gentleman, with candour that does him the highest honour, put it
to the Counsel for the prisoner, to produce what evidence they
could as to his character up to the time of committing the crimes
with, which he stood charged. No such evidence however was
adduced.

The prisoner was overwhelmned with grief, but declined altering
bis plea.

Lord Hermand proposed that sentence of death should be passed
upon the unhappy man, in which Lord Pitmilly concurred, the
Court, as his Lordship remarked, havirig no discretionary power in
such a case.

Lord Meadowbank made some forcible observations on the
aggravated nature of the crime the prisoner had committed, and
observed,, that the safty of the lieges required that example should
be made ; the duty was imperious on the Court, and it was ne-
cessary thot on other principle should be allowed.

The Lord Justice Clerk then addressed the prisoner on the
henious nature of his crimes, committed at half-past 12 o'clock at
noon on a public street;. as to the qualification of his plea, that to
his knowledge he did not strike, his Lordship was at a loss to com-
prehend what benefit to expect to derive from that. The present
was a most aggravated case of street robbery, committed in the
heart of this populous city, and it was the imperative duty of the
Court to pass the last dreadful sentence of the law His Lordship
cautioned the unhappy man to indulge no vain hopes of a miti-
gation of his sentence, as had taken place in the case of the un-
happy persons he had before alluded to, the applications in whose
behalf he was not at liberty to state, and of whose commutation of
punishment he had only received official information that morning
His Lordship most feelingly addressed the wretched culprit, ad-
monishing him, that as his days are numbered, fixed, and deter-
mined, not to waste the time allotted to him, by indulging vain
hopes of mercy in this life, but to be earnest and anxious to make
his peace with his offended God by sincere repentance, through the
mediation of his Blessed Redeemer, in which he would be assisted
by the Ministers of Religion of this city. His Lordship conclud-
ed a most pathetic exhortation with the awful sentence?that the
prisoner should be executed on Wednesday morning the 19th of
January next, at the usual time and place.

The prisoner was deeply -affected, and during his Lordship's
address sobbed aloud, but became more composed on leaving
the bar.                                                                      Edinburgh...Printed for James M'Lean,....Price One Penny.

previous