Executed Irish man pardoned after over 150 years!

OutlawPete

Racism is what is thought to have been at the heart of the case. John Gordon had only left Ireland for America just two years before:

Pardoned after 166 years: Irish immigrant hanged for murder who became last man ever executed in Rhode Island

The outpouring of anger after he was hanged on Valentine's Day 1845 was so great that 29-year-old Irish immigrant John Gordon became the last man ever executed in Rhode Island.

Now, 166 years later, the state's governor is finally set to pardon him for murdering a wealthy mill owner - a crime historians say he almost certainly didn't commit.

Gordon is believed to have been the victim of a tainted trial, fuelled by widespread bigotry against Irish Catholics in 19th century America.

Doubts over his conviction prompted the state to abolish the death penalty just seven years later. It was reinstated in the 1870s, but no man was ever again executed in Rhode Island.

Last night the state's House of Representatives passed a unanimous resolution asking Governor Lincoln Chafee to clear Gordon's name.

Today Mr Chafee will sign a proclamation officially pardoning the young immigrant at the Old State House, Providence, where Gordon was convicted of killing Amasa Sprague, the brother of a U.S. senator.

Peter Martin, the representative who sponsored the bill, told the Irish Times: 'I was brought up understanding two things. That the Irish endured prejudice here, and that a young man hanged for a murder he did not commit.'

Time of prejudice: Providence, Rhode Island, in 1858 - 13 years after John Gordon was executed. The state abolished the death penalty in 1852

Gordon had arrived in America just two years before, leaving Ireland in 1843 to join his brothers Nicholas and William, who ran a tavern near Sprague's mill in Cranston.

But Sprague wanted the tavern closed because too many of his workers were turning up drunk.

So he asked his brother, U.S. senator William Sprague, to get Gordon's licence revoked.

Soon afterwards, Sprague was murdered. His body was found in the snow on New Year's Eve, 1843.

The killer had shot him in the arm and beaten him so badly his skull was fractured in two places.

Police arrested the three Gordon brothers the next day, with prosecutors claiming they had murdered Sprague in revenge for taking away their liquor licence.

The trial lasted nine days and included more than 100 witnesses. The judge told the jurors - none of whom were Irish Catholics - to give more weight to 'Yankee' witnesses than Irish ones.

Most of the evidence was circumstantial, or turned out to be dubious, including a 'blood-stained coat' which had been covered in red dye.

Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee is to sign a proclamation today officially clearing John Gordon of the murder of a wealthy mill owner in 1843

A prostitute testified that she knew the Gordon brothers and had heard one of them vowing to kill Sprague - but when asked to identify them individually, she couldn't.

Historians later found out she worked for the brother of one of the trial's judges.

Nicholas and William were cleared, but after deliberating for just 75 minutes, the jury found John guilty of murder.

Appeals proved fruitless, and on February 14, 1845, he walked to the gallows at Providence Jail.

He told the assembled witnesses: 'I forgive them. I forgive all my persecutors, because they did not know what they were doing. I hope all good Christians pray for me.'

His death prompted a huge outpouring of anger amongst Irish immigrants, who protested across New England. Thousands more marched in Gordon's funeral procession.

Now, more than 150 years later, campaigners say they feel justice has finally been done.

Source.

genericguy

I'm sure he will be relieved that justice has finally been served.

Biggins

Took their bloody time!

ejmaztec

Biggins wrote: »

Took their bloody time!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056266290

History thread back in May.

Biggins

ejmaztec wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056266290

History thread back in May.

Cheers.
Strange that they took this long. Maybe someone was waiting for relatives of the murdered victim, to pass away. Maybe not.
Either way, the hanged mans immediate family didn't live long enough to see their relative found finally innocent. Pity.

Fratton Fred

I guess this has been hanging around for some time.

ejmaztec

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I guess this has been hanging around for some time.

Yep, old noose.

IvyTheTerrible

It'll be interesting to see if any of the "Burn 'em" brigade who reply to threads about criminals post in here, and what they say...

bijapos

Appeals proved fruitless, and on February 14, 1845, he walked to the gallows at Providence Jail.

He told the assembled witnesses: 'I forgive them. I forgive all my persecutors, because they did not know what they were doing.

If those were his last words then thats pretty strong stuff, he died a noble man with his head held high.

Fratton Fred

bijapos wrote: »

If those were his last words then thats pretty strong stuff, he died a noble man with his head held high.

About two feet higher than his shoulders by the sounds of things.

Seachmall

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

It'll be interesting to see if any of the "Burn 'em" brigade who reply to threads about criminals post in here, and what they say...

I don't think anyone who supports capital punishment is ignorant of the fact that innocent people are found guilty.

ejmaztec

Biggins wrote: »

Cheers.
Strange that they took this long. Maybe someone was waiting for relatives of the murdered victim, to pass away. Maybe not.
Either way, the hanged mans immediate family didn't live long enough to see their relative found finally innocent. Pity.

It could have been triggered off when they examined old papers that were originally found in the Judge's old house in the 1970s, as mentioned in the History thread. He was obviously a prejudiced old bastard, and not just towards Irish Catholics.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/death_penalty_case_05-25-08_TCA892N_v56.2f760d1.html

Now, Christine King, a University of Rhode Island employee, and Scott Molloy, a URI professor and noted student of Rhode Island history, have identified original papers belonging to Job Durfee, the state Supreme Court chief justice who presided over the Gordon case.
King has carted the papers from one attic to another in a series of moves over her adult life. The documents came from her family home in Tiverton, which was once owned by Durfee. King’s grandfather, a dairy farmer named George Morgan, was proud, said King, “that he got the home of such a respected man, a judge, a rich man.”
In 1975, when her grandfather died, King took the Durfee papers, but didn’t think much of them for years. Finally she took a closer look at them and consulted Molloy, who realized immediately that the Durfee material would have historical significance, because the justice was involved in three of Rhode Island’s most contentious 19th-century trials. Besides the Gordon trial, Durfee was a judge in an 1833 murder trial that ended with the conviction of a Methodist minister in the killing of a female factory worker; the 1842 treason trial of Thomas Wilson Dorr, who led a statewide rebellion against the Yankee establishment that refused to enact universal suffrage or allow immigrants to vote; and the Gordon case and two related trials against Gordon’s brothers for involvement in the murder of Amasa Sprague, who owned a textile factory.
The notes of John Gordon’s trial are in Durfee’s cryptic and difficult-to-read handwriting. After a cursory examination, Molloy says, there “is no smoking gun there” that would provide more clues about Gordon’s guilt or innocence.
“But this is an unbelievable find,” says Molloy. “To be able to see the handwriting of a judge who was involved in some of the most important cases of the 19th century is unusual. It is especially unbelievable to have this kind of original source material surface after so long.”
The John Gordon trial especially resonates to this day. The questions surrounding his death by hanging have long been cited by opponents of capital punishment as evidence that it should not be used in the state’s criminal law. Every time there was a serious attempt at the State House to bring the death penalty back to the state — the last was in the 1990s by then-Rep. Antonio Pires, D-Pawtucket — Gordon’s trial is invoked and measures to reinstitute capital punishment are defeated

minidazzler

FFS, the mill owner was fcuking with people's lives and livelyhood through good old cronyism. He was a prick anyway.

OutlawPete

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckFL_ROnkzo

Mike 1972

Seachmall wrote: »

I don't think anyone who supports capital punishment is ignorant of the fact that innocent people are found guilty.

really ?

CrazyRabbit

As Maggie Thatcher believed..."Innocent until proven Irish".

ejmaztec

minidazzler wrote: »

FFS, the mill owner was fcuking with people's lives and livelyhood through good old cronyism. He was a prick anyway.

Let's go and get the bastard.:mad: