Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1881 — Haunted by His Crime. [ARTICLE]

Haunted by His Crime.

The following striking example of the state of a murderer’s heart,* with its ceaseless memory and perpetual self-ac-cusation, brings forcibly to mind the words of Webster: “A vulture is devouring it, and it can ask no human assistance or sympathy.” The case is that of Martin Battles, of Charlotte, N. Y., who twenty years ago shot and killed Cornelius Lynch. He was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to one year in the Auburn penitentiary, and then to be hanged. His case was brought before the Court of Appeals. The court decided that the act of the Legislature was unconstitutional, and Battles was set at liberty. He enlisted in the Union army, and served through the late war. He then returned. He declared that he was constantly haunted by the presence of the man he had killed, and he was sorry th: it the sentence of the law had not been carried out. He endeavored to have himself placed on trial again, hoping that he would be reconvicted and hanged. He finally became a maniac, and was placed in the Western asylum for the insane. He is still an inmate of that institution, and imagines that his victim is always present in his cell for tho purpose of mocking and tort wing him, He at times throws h’mself on his knees and begs Lynch to kill him, Although only <0 years of

age, his hair is as white as a man’s of 70. Every day is one of terror to him. —uVew York Sun.