THE VERDICT.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1891, 20 October 1886, Page 2

THE VERDICT.

HALL SENTENCED TO IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE. MISS HOUSTON ACQUITTED. There was tremendous excitement in Christchurch when after an eight days’ trial the case was brought to a close. The jury retired at 3.10 p.m., and after an absence of seven minutes returned with a verdict of guilty as regarding Hall, and not guilty as regards Miss Houston. Tho foreman said he wished to say that Miss Houston left tho Court without the slightest stain on her character.

His Honor asked if there was any other charge against Miss Houston, and, on hearing that there was not, at once ordered her discharge. Addressing the prisoner, his Honor said : Prisoner at the bar—The crime of which you have been convicted is one of the most infamous that one has ever read of iu the history of criminal proceedings. A young man recently married to a young wife, who had just become the mother ol bis child ; ajwoman whom you treated to the world’s eye with the consideration and respect that were due to her; the woman whose bedside you visited every morniug with a deadly purpose ; the woman whom you saw dying, as I may call it, by inches, stepping on day after day and hour after hour to that grave to which your intentions consigned her, getting for yourself the passing reputation of a kind, considerate, good husband, while all the time of these long months—it may be from the very hour you led her to the altar— you have been harboring the vile thought of sending her to her tomb. Anything that I could say cannot sufficiently describe the detestable nature ol your crime. There is no excuse whatever, as we have read of in other cases of poisoning, that there were intrigues or sexual desire, or that you are a man lured on by strong passion. There is nothing of 4he kind to extenuate the offence. You have been guilty ol worse than murder, and compared to this most murders are kind and considerate. In prosecuting your scheme, your murder has been from week to week. lam bound to say, little as I like to speak in strong terms to those who have fallen to the lowest depths of degradation, that I must in justice characterise your crime as it deserves to be characterised and as an example for the rest of your fellow citizens, and I suy that you have achieved the distinction of being the vilest of your sex. Among the many cases of murder on record, seldom has a case occurred of so much moral guilt as yours, and had the law not been altered, you would certainly have forfeited your life, and there would have been no chance of any commutation ol your sentence. The law does not permit me to pass that sentence which would stamp your crime with its true character. I pass you the heaviest sentence possible—that you he kept in penal servitude for tho rest of your natural life.

Rail appeared unmoved when the lerriMe sentence was passvd. "Penal servitude fertile lost of your natural life,” means tiiat lie must live aud die in gaol. Had it fieeu penal servitude for life lie ifti-lif line licou released after Burring 10 or la years