Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1890 — RESPITE FROM DEATH. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RESPITE FROM DEATH.

K£MMLER, the mckberer, gets a NEW LEAS- or LIFE. Judge Wallace, of the Federal Court, Grant i a Writ of Habeas Corpus—The Constitutionality of Kxo;ution by Electricity to Be Teste 1. [AUBUBN {.V. T.) CORRESPONDENCE.]

ILLIAJI KEMMLER. the Buffalo murderer, has received anew lease of life, and there 1 will be no electrical execution in Auburn Siate Prison this week. Indeed, it is altogether probable that the proof 'of the success oriaili re of a legal execution by electricity in this State will be postponed for many months. The iirrnnrement.s had been made to the smallest detail. The hideous paraphernalia of the secret death chamber

was in place aud ready for tlie last test. The witnesses of the execution had been chosen and many of them wore on hand. The day, almost the hour, whs selected. The murderer had been told that his time had come to die, and had been baptized and said his good-by to the best friond he ever had

in life. His coffin was in readiness or him. Then, at llie eleventh hour, that stern and inexorable voice o tho people, m the shape of its time-honored agent, the habeas co-pus act, steppe I in, and there was a&tav. A ain the questioi| was raised whether this penalty was or was not eiuei and unusual, and t ie.courts of the United Btat-s were ealle I upon lo decide tne issue. The murderer was snatcl ed from a deatn which might have prove l so awtul ns to have shocked the c vllized world an l might have been as peaceful as the sleep of child-

hood. Tne stay came with tho person of Roger M. Bherman. of the law firm of Bhermau & Herling, of New York City, and reads as follows: The President of the United States to Charles F. Durston, Warden and Agent of Auburn Prison, greeting: * The people of the United States whom God defend, do command you that you have the body of William Kemmler, by you imprisoned aud detained, as it is said, together with the time and cause of such imprisonment and detention by whatsoever name the said William Kemmler is called or charged, before

the Circuit Court o f the United States for the northern district of New York, to be held at Canandaigua on tho third Monday of June, at 10 o’clock in the morning. Witness tho Hon. Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States. Fail not at your peril, and have you then and there this writ. On the back of the writ is this indorsement: The within writ is granted this 28th day of April, 1(80. WiElia« 8: ’Wallace, ; iti Judge UnJte4i6jtiatpft flircuit Court. ' 1 It is, only by chance that, the present step, ostensibly ip behalf of , Reminler-, ctoittts'fer anythin#, fbrihad notltftere, been a little .delay in getting, th,e, apparatus in

final order and in completing other arrang meats. the criminal would have been shocked into the next world on Tuesday morning just alter daybreak. It was the Warden’s intention, it is declared by those who have seen the first notification, to have the deoi done in that hour. Had his original {dans' been carried out the movement 'of K**mmler’s mysterious Iriends would have b -an fruitless. The Warden, for some reason best known to himself, kept putting off announcing to Kemm'.or the caange in his fortunes. It wav a little before 4 o’closk when the Warden went to tell the unsuspecting murde.er of the great mean ng of me paper he had signod and the greater meaning or the writ ot habeas corpus. Mr. Durston, laying, his bund on Kemmler’s shoulder, explained to him that a writ of habeas corpus hod been served upon him: and that the paper he signed before Mr. McNeil meant that he had a new lawyer who was going to try his case over asain. The prisoner gazed with a look that showed he did not fully understand the Warden’s language. Then Mr. Durston said: “It means that your execution is not coming off now, aud that you will have two months and perhaps longer to live." “Oh." said Kemmler, just as if the real facts were beginning to dawn upon him; “that makes me leel easier.” The Warden stood there a moment; Kemmler walked to his chair and sat down. His face was expressionless, and he said nothing to indicate great astonishment or delignt. Mr. Durston turned, locked the corridor door, and came away. The future of the case will be one of longprotracted litigation. When Kemmler Is produced at Canandaigua on June 16 the first argument will be had. That may last for several days, and it may be weeks before the decision of tho court is handed down. If it is against Mr. Sherman h« may take the case on anpeal to the United States Supreme Court at Washington. There are many cas *s before that bench, and it may take months or years to get tho question fully before that court. When the final decision is delivered Kemmler may be grayheaded.

Tlio Chair of Heath. The preparations for Kemmler’s execution had been lully completed, and the 6hock of the law’s thunderbolt would have pierced his body within less than twelve hours except lor tho interference of Lawyer Sherman in his behnl*. Too fatal chair in which the condemned man whs to sit while he received the deadly electric current (an exact picture of which is herewith presented) is thus described: It is a comfortable eimir with an upright back and arms that are adjustable to those of the men who sits in it. There is a leath-er-covoied -pillow ior the head to lest against. Fastened to the back is an adjustable figure 4. which can be ra sed or lowered so as to come down over the head of the condemned. The technique of the thing is very simple. Through the ’lower outer angle of the 4 (figure a) there is a nole, and through this w.ll pass a rubber tube containing a rod of steel or copper, to which a wet sponge is fastened. Tins sponge will touch the crown of the condemned man’s head. Another pipe, with webbing inside and a apouge. will pass up through the seat so Ji9 to touch the base of thespino. when the man is strapped firmly in his seat. Tin's will be accomplished by the use of several straps, one p issiug around the chest, another

around the abdomen, which will draw the wobbing iigainst the. spine, while the arms will be firmly strapped to those of the chair on which they will rest. The feet will rest on a comfortable foot rest, after the fashion of those in use in a barber-shop. Indeed, the strong resemblance Of this instrument of death to a barber’s chair has already caused the prison officials to speak of electrocution in their roughly humorous way as a baldheaded shave. The electricity wilt be generated by a dynamo which has been

placed near to the power-room, a thou- ; sand feet away from the place of execution, and the insulated wires which will connect ' it with the rods end sponges have all been strung in readiness for their work. There is nothing uncomfortable about the chain save the deadly current whicn goes with it, and if death, by the latter be as sudden and painless as its affirm, it will certainly be the most mereii ful means of capital punishment used anywhere. •' ''• • -T. I H- I T's , ■ k Well Wisher—-A traveler the desert. . ‘ ; ; ’,, j [....

THE CHAIR OF DEATH.

AUBURN STATE PRISON.