COMMUTATION OF WHITEHEAD'S SENTENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1121, 25 July 1865, Page 5

COMMUTATION OF WHITEHEAD'S SENTENCE.

The sentence of death parsed by Mr Justice Richmond upon Thomas Whitebead, alias Brummy, who was recently found guilty of the-wilful murder of David Stewart, at the Mataura Bush, has been commuted by the Governor to one of penal servitude for life.

Communications to this effect were received yesterday by Mr 11. 11. Fonnan, the Sheriff, and by Mr Stoddart, the Governor of the Gaol. The letter to the Sheriff is dated the 17th inst., is from the office of the Attorney-General, and simply informs the Sheriff of the commutation before mentioned. The document received by the Governor of the Gaol, is a warrant dated the loth inst., signed by his Excellency, and countersigned by Mr Sewell, as Attorney-General ; the warrant being, firstly, a pardon of Whitehead, so far as the death-sentence is concerned, and, secondly, an authority to the Governor to carry out the condition upon which such pardon is granted—the keeping of Whitehead in penal servitude for the term of his natural life.

We recently stated that since hia committal, Whitehead had manifested none of the insensibility or indifference which marked his bearing during his trial. We now understand that, so far as penitence can he shown by a prisoner, Whitehead has shown himself penitent; and that he had resigned himself to the death which the terms of his sentence told him was inevitable. He has been frequently visited by the Rev. E. G. Edwards, in addition to the constant visitations of the Rev. Mr Smith, the gaol chaplain; and both those gentlemen speak most favorably of the convict's behavior. When the warrant was read to him yesterday morning, by the Governor of the G-iol, Whitehead burst into tears; and he subsequently expressed himself as greatly thankful that his life had been spared.

We have received the following letter from Mr Bathgatc, with the enclosure referred to:— (To the Editor of the J>aily Times.) Sib—l beg to enclose to you a letter from the Attorney-General's office announcing that his Excellency the Governor has been pleaded to commute the sentence of death passed on the prisoner Thomas Whitehead, to that of penal servitude for life, I feel assured that this intelligence will be gratifying even to those who differed with me in opinion on the subject of his punishment. I may add that the conduct of Whitehead has been remarkably good since his condemnation. He has been filled with contrition for his crime; never a murmur has escaped his lips; and he has repeatedly expressed himself resigned to die if it were God's will. He has not been aware that any petition had been forwarded on his behalf, and he has been invariably urged to look for the worst, none of the clergymen attending him having held out the slightest hope that his life would be spared. I mention these circumstances to remove the impression existing in some minds that he was a callous obdurate criminal. He felt a pang for the shame his expected untimely end would bring on his wife and child, the iorraer of whom he characterised as "a good young woman," whose advices would have kept him from sorrow and crime if he had only attended to them. It was .to earn some money for them that he left Tasmania for the diggings here. From this shame they are now happily relitved.—l am, &c, John Bathgate. Dunedin, 24th July, 1865.

3TUART STREET JETJPY,