Carthage, Aug. 25—Thomas Hamilton, or John McMillan as he is known in some sections, will die in the electric chair on Friday, the second day of October, for his brutal assault upon Mrs. J.W. Sides of Eagle Springs.
His trial, conviction and sentence consumed little more than half a day in Moore Superior Court, and it took the jury hardly more than five minutes, just enough time to file in and out of the jury box, to decide his guilt.
The sentence was pronounced by Judge McElroy, who is presiding at the term, on the convening of court after lunch hour. The usual ceremony in such cases was followed. Commanded to stand up, the negro was asked if he had anything to say as to why the sentence of death should not be passed upon him. Hamilton, clad in blue overalls, with a slight ashen color discernible on his face, muttered incoherently. His exact words will probably never be known but he is understood to have said, “Yes sir, I place my trust in the Lord.” He will die between the hours of 10 a.m. and 8 pm. On the designated day.
It was a clear case against the negro. He was positively identified as her assailant by Mrs. Sides, who, with Dr. Wyland Blue, Sheriff R.G. Frye and Officer Levitt told of Hamilton’s admission, while he was being brought from Aberdeen to Carthage that he was at the spring where the assault took place; but his partial confession, as related by Sheriff Frye, was stricken from the records on the possibility it might have been induced by fright, the sheriff having told Hamilton a big crowd of men were looking for him at Eagle Springs. Dr. Blue told of his examination of Mrs. Sides after the assault.
Hamilton is reported to have admitted his guilt to Mr. Burns. “I have been appointed to defend you,” Mr. Burns is quoted as having said to the negro, “and I would like for you to tell me the truth. Are you guilty or innocent?”
“I guess I had better come clean,” he is said to have replied. “I did it.”
This admission, if made, was treated as confidential between attorney and client and did not get to the jury.
(Mrs. Sides is a daughter of Anthony E. Bost of Concord.—Editor).
From page 2 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-08-26/ed-1/seq-2/
No comments:
Post a Comment