Richfield, Williams
Creek, Cariboo
THE SENTENCE
Judge Begbie addressed the prisoner James
Barry, who still maintained the same stolid indifference which he manifested
throughout the whole trial, and said, "I concur with the verdict of
the jury; it is one given after due consideration of the whole circumstances.
It is clear that your started with the murdered
man from Quesnelmouth; that you knew he had money; that you were penniless;
that you were seen at the 13 Mile House in his company; and again seen with
him a short distance from the spot where the body was afterwards found,
and that the man was never more seen alive. You had money when you came
on the creek; you were in possession of a nugget belonging to the murdered
man, which you disposed of to a witness which has not been produced. You
are found in possession of a weapon that would produce the crime. I can
no more doubt your guilt, than if I had been an eye-witness to it. I have
no doubt you seduced your victim to leave the road and then perpetrated
the crime; and that you did it for the sake of booty, the most sordid of
all motives; that you reveled for months on the proceeds and then left;
that you gave a false name when apprehended. You have given no explanation
regarding the nugget, and none as to the disappearance of Blessing; you
have appeared perfectly indifferent.
It has been proved that you did not work
or do anything to get money. It is impossible to conceive a crime more wanton
or atrocious than that which you have committed. I can offer you no hope
of mercy. You have...dyed your hands in blood, and must...suffer the same
fate. The law for the savage as well as the Christian is death for death.
My painful duty now is to pass the last sentence of the law on you...; which
is that you be taken to the place whence you came and from thence to the
place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck until you are dead; and
may the Lord have mercy on your soul."
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