Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1901 — CZOLGOSZ IS TO DIE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CZOLGOSZ IS TO DIE

President’s Assassin Soon Goes ■ to Electric Chair. DAY OP DOOM FIXED. .• _ . During Ihe Week of October 28 the Wretch Will Give Up His Life. Arch Exponent of Anarchy, E icmy of Law, and Cowardly Murderer of a Nation’s Chief Is Formally Sentenced —Pallid, Weak and Cringing, He Hears His Doom Pronounced—Trial Short and Dignifi.it—CzalgosZ. Declares There Wat No P.ot. Leon F. Czolgosz, the arch exponent of anarchy, the murderer of a defenseless man, the enemy of law and authority, has heard the voice of retribution directed at himself, pronouncing death for the assassin of President McKinley. Czolgosz was found guilty by a jury on Tuesday, and on Thursday Judge While pronounced the death sentence, fixing the week of Oct. 2S as the-time during which electrocution will take place. The assassin was removed to the State prison at Auburn, where he awaits his doom.

Before sentence was passed the assassin took advantage of the opportunity given him to speak, but he confined himself to taking upon his own shoulders the blame for the great crime of having murdered the President of the United States. He advanced no reason in justification cf his monstrous deed. Not a word did he utter cf anarchy, of his enmity to government or of the motives which prompted him to the commission of his crime. The sentence was brief. "Czolgosz,” said the court, “you have committed a grave crime agaiust the State and our Union in the assassination of our beloved President. After, learning all the facts

and circumstances in the case, twelve good men have pronounced you guilty of murder in the first degree. You say that no other person abetted yon in the commission of this terrible act. The penalty is fixed by statute, find it becomes my duty to impose sentence upon you. The sentence of this court Is that in the week beginning Oct. 28, at the place designated and in the nninner prescribed by law, rou suffer the punishment of death!’’ In a hush that was like the silence of death Justice White pronounced the prisoner’s doom. Physically tottering under the ordeal, but sustaining himself by sheer force of nerve, the murderer heard the words of death-pronounced, was shackled and quietly submitted to be led away. After a full, fair and public trial he has been adjudged guilty by a duly constituted jury nud is condemned to die In the electric chair. He will be killed by the law, which be wished to kill. The Ignominious end that awaits lilm Is the same that is reserved for all who seek to put the Insane and murderous ideas of auarclilsm into operation. He will go to his death accompanied by the execrations of the civilized world. > The promptness and dispatch with which the case was disposed of in the courts Is a subject for public congratulation. No time was lost in needless quibbliugs about non-esseutlul points. The Jury was Impaneled In two or three hours, yet it was as impartial as pf a mouth had been spent on the task. The prisoner hod the benefit of all the

privileges of the law against which hi had raised his hand. He was represented by able attorneys, who did all that could be done in the defense of such a. prisoner. He had an opportunity to speak in his own defense, thdugh there was nothing he could say to extenuate his awful crime. The ease went to the jury with the same formalities as any other murder case, and tire speedy rendering of a verdict of guilty was in accord with the interests of justicel - Trial I* Short. Eight hours and twenty-five minutes, is the actual time occupied by the trial of the case and the deliberations aud return ot the jury. Eighteen days had elapsed from the shooting of the President, and ten days and fourteen hours since his death. On Thursday at 2 p. m., twenty days after the crime was-committed, the assassin was sentenced to death. No witnesses were sworn Tor the defense. Not a word ot evidence was before the court as so the sanity of the prisoner. The alienists who examined him wjjre not called. The court instructed the jury that the proof Of insanity is with the defendant, that a man must be presumed to be sane unless proved insane. To the assassin was offered the opportunity to go on the stand, but he only, shook his head when his lawyers asked him. v. He did not trust himself to speak. The unconcerned murderer had changed. His pallor had turned from white to gray. His hands shook. He curtained his eyeswith the lids and sat with his head hanging on his shoulders, a nervous perspiration oozing out on his face'aud hands. In remaining mute throughout the assassin found a way to hold his composure, hut in court he. was a most miserable picture.' No bravado, no courage, no defiance of death. Swfftness without haste, the naked truth, the calm but unerring .efficacy of law, the decorum of long-written precedent, the matchless majesty of reason. These are the elements which combined to make this trial almost incomparable in the Experience of those who witnessed it. Even the spectators seemed actuated by the splendid motive of fair play. They did not hiss nor storm nor buffet the assassin as he was led through their midst. Calmly they heard his arraignment. Silently they witnessed his appearance before his accusers and dumbly they heard tbe final judgment of his peers. After the reading of the verdict, as Czolgosz passed between his guards to jail, there was a feeble hissing sound of vindictive satisfaction. But even this died as it was uttered, and the arch monster of latterday criminals passed into the shadow of

death marked only by the intangible infamy of his own deed. The final acts iu the execution of justice, it is to be hoped, will be marked by the same quiet nnd expeditions methods which have marked the trial. Let the law take its course, relentlessly but dispassionately. The snuffing out of the worthless life of the assassin will he a vindication of the law, though it wUL “sunt, as absolutely - .. u .--, nothing in the balance ngninst the life which lie ended. It is one of the humiliating features of the affair that so insignificant a creature should have been able to inflict such a grent sorrow upon so many people. The only satisfaction lies In the swift and majestic -manner in which justice has been meted out to the criminal without violating a single provision of the law.

JUDGE WHITE READING THE DEATH SENTENCE TO CZOLGOSZ.