Majority
p. 38The People vs. Richard Williams.
Headnote
If I. S. com •mits a felony, .and is sentenced to the •"State Prison, and before the term is expired, is again sentenced for another crime the judgment ¡hot bring°‘af•ter the ••lion of your former senitence.’ QueryAssault and Battery, with intent to murder.
Richard Williams, a convict in the Stite’s Prison, . , , , was put to the bar for trial, charged with committing an aggaujt; and battery, with intent to murder, upon the per- * son of Hiram Maxwell, also a convict in the same place.
The history of the transaction is as follows : exertions ha(j j^gn made sometime ago, by Williams and others, „ to escape from the prison; they were defeated in their an(i their defeat was principally owing to discoveries made by Maxwell. From that time until June lasb he had repeatedly threatened to kill him. On the 23d that month, on Sunday, in the intermission of divine , , ... . . service, he attempted to put his threats in execution : he gejze¿ Maxwell in the yard, and attempted to cut his throat with a common case-knife, sharpened at the point, and prepared flt for the purpose: in this object, by the
p. 39
exertion and struggles of Maxwell, he failed. He then attempted to take his life by stabbing, which he nearly ef- _ fected, and would have completely effected in a moment more, had not the keeper’s attention been directed to the place by the' cries of Maxwell. He stabbed him in a ber of places about the head and shoulders, and one thrust in the side, supposed to be mortal.
The prisoner, during the illness of Maxwell,, affected insanity; but on his recovery from danger, told the keeper he intended to kill him, and the reasons he offered were, that Maxwell had exposed him in his plans of escape.
Upon these facts being made out by the witnesses, to the satisfaction of the court, he was asked by them what he had to say. in his defence; he made no reply. The jury without any hesitation, returned a verdict “ guilty.”
The Recorder then recapitulated sonie of the prominent facts of the case to the prisoner; and after observing that his character was so bad, and his disposition so wicked, that the safety of mankind required a more rigorous confinement than he had been hitherto subject to, proceeded to pass sentence upon him, which was, that he should be confined in the State’s Prison in the southern district of New York, in solitary confinement for the term of three years. This sentence was passed upon the prisoner in the usual manner of those first convicted, without saying “ after the expiration of the term you are already sentenced.”1 Query—is the sentence good 1