COOPER EXECUTED.

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 142, 16 June 1923, Page 8

COOPER EXECUTED.

MEETS HIS END CALMLY

■• Daniel Kiohard Cooper, who was convicted at the la-st criminal sessions of the Supreme Court on a charge of murdering an infant child at Newlands, and was sentenced to death by Mr. Justice Chapman, was executed at the Terra-ce Gaol at 8 o'clock this mornmg. The condemned man met his end calmly.

A few minutes before 8 o'clock, the small procession to the old tailors' room, where the execution was earned into effect, left the condemned cell. The order was as follows:—The Sheriff (Mr. W. A. Hawkins) and the gaol Burgeon (Dr. H. .A; H. Gilmer); the chaplain (Colonel Bobert Bray, of the Salvation Army); the prisoner, supported by two warders; the executioner; mid the gaoler (Mr. J. C. Scanlon), the chief warder, the visiting Justice of the Peace (Mr. Edwin Arnold),' and representatives of the Press. The executioner was disguised by means of a dark beard and moustache, and wore a dark hat all through the proceedings. Cooper walked firmly to the scaffold, although his responses to the chaplain were made in scarcely more than a- whisper. His eyes' remained closed practically from the time he left his cell until his head was covered... .When asked by the Sheriff if he desired to make any statement, Cooper replied in a faint voice: "All I have «aid-*I-" have said to my friends (meaning, apparently, the Salvation Army officers).- I have nothing more to say." The sentence of the Court was then carried into- effect. Death was instantaneous. At an inquest held subsequently by the Coroner (Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.), the usual finding was returned. During- the last few days.of his life,. Cooper had slept;fairly well and his appetite, had been, good, better on some Says than on others. Last night he went to sleep a,t a fairly early hour, and slept until early this morning. His breakfast consisted of a quarter of a £late of porridge, a piece of toast,-a piece of bread and butter, and half a cup of tea. He kept very much to himself, and seldom Bpoke to those who were attending to his hoods'. This morning; ■he made no re-^ Suest.to see anybody, and did not tender ionics to any of the gaol officials, except one warder who had been more closely asoooiated with him. In his cell were a hymn-book, a prayer-book, and'a religious publication, " Thy Kingdom Come." During the time he was in the prison he made no request to see his wife.