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.
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Date of publication:
1825 shelfmark: Ry.III.a.2(59)
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