Broadside entitled 'Trial and Sentence'

Transcription

Trial and Sentence !

A Full and Particular Account of the Trial and Sen-
tence of WILLIAM POLLOCK, who is to be Executed
at Edinburgh, on Wednesday the 22d March, 1826,
for the awful Murder of his Wife, on the 11th No-
vember last, at Gifford's Park, and his Body to be
given to Dr Munro for Dissection.

YESTERDAY morning, Monday the 13th February, 1826, came
on, before the High Court of Justiciary, the Trial of WIL-
LIAM POLLOCK, accused of Murdering, on the evening of the
llth November last, Ann Rennie, his wife, in his own house in
Gifford's Park, near Edinburgh, by giving her a stab in the lower
part of the body, with a knife or some lethal weapon, in conse-
quence of which she died shortly after. The circumstances of this
case, though of a peculiarly interesting nature, cannot with pro-
priety be published. They may however be shortly stated thus,?
Pollock and the deceased had been married for upwards of twenty
years, and had four children in life, and one dead. For a consider-
able time past they had lived on the worst terms,...the wife being
much addicted to drinking, and while in a state of intoxication ex-
ceedingly quarrelsome ; consequently brawls frequently occurred
in the house, and Mrs Pollock was on some of these occasions
struck. On the night previous to her decease, Mrs Pollock ap-
peared melancholy, and said she would rather sleep in a stair than
go home, she was so much afraid of her husband. She did how-
ever venture home, much the worse of liquor. About midnight
the pannel called a neighbour (Mrs Leishman) to come and see his
wife, then dead. This witness described the situation of the body,
and appearance of the room, with accuracy and minuteness ;? her
evidence was fully corroborated. To Mrs Leishman the pannel
stated that his wife had died in consequence of the rupture of a
blood-vessel. A child of five years of age, however, said at the
time, " Daddy kicked and hurted my mammy ;" upon which Pol-
lock threatened the boy, who became afraid.

Pollock, at the desire of Mrs Leishman, went for Dr White ; and
while on his way to his own house, he stated to that gentleman,
that he thought his wife's death had been occasioned by her up-
setting a table on which had been some earthenware, and then fall-
ing on the fragments in the floor,?but at the period of this con-
versation it was not ascertained the deceased had been wounded at
all. Dr While examined the body for nearly twenty minutes be-
fore he discovered the wound, which, he said, must have been in-
flicted by a sharp instrument, and could not be received in a fall.
The evidence and conclusions of Dr White were fully borne out by
Mr Newbigging and Mr Black of the police establishment, all con-
curring that the death could not, by possibility, have happened by
the hand of the deceased herself, nor from accident.

An attempt was made, on the part of Pollock, to make out that
the deceased, from her disposition, might have received the wound
from some person with whom she had quarrelled.

The Jury were addressed with much feeling by the Lord Advo-
cate, and by Adam Paterson, Esq. in a speech of considerable in-
genuity and talent for the pannel.

The Lord Justice Clerk then delivered an impressive charge to
the Jury, who, without leaving the box, unanimously found the
prisoner guilty....Sentence was delayed till this day at two o'clock.

Accordingly this day, Tuesday, the Court met at two o'clock,
when the Jury was called over; and after the Lords had delivered
their opinion, the Lord Justice Clerk, in a most solemn and im-
pressive manner, addressed the prisoner at considerable length, ex-
patiating on the horrible enormity of his offence, murder being
equally repugnant to the laws of God and man, and aggravated
particularly in his case, in having been committed on the body of a
person he was solemnly bound to protect by every law, human and
divine. His Lordship then pronounced the awful sentence of the .
law, That he be detained in Jail, and fed on bread and water, till
Wednesday the 22d day of March next, and to be then taken to
the head of Libberton Wynd, between the hours of 8 and 10
o'clock morning, and there hanged till he be dead, and his body af-
terwards delivered to be publicly dissected.

Edinburgh,....Printed for the Booksellers.?Price One Penny.

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