Chap. 7. 



POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



121 



CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS. 



CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS' 



outside of the outer garment.* Theft 

 was punished by restoring three fold, by 

 fine at the discretion of the court, and 

 whipping, not exceeding thirty nine lash- 

 es ; and when the offender was unable to 

 make restitution, he was to be bound out 

 to .service for the payment of the same, 

 together with the fine and damages, t 

 Drunkenness, lying, and profane cursing 

 and swearing, were punished by fine and 

 sitting in the stocks, t 



Blasphemy and several other crimes, 

 which are now punished by imprison- 

 ment, were formerly punished by death. 

 Death was the penalty for counterfeiting 

 or altering 'the Vermont bills of credit. || 

 Counterfeiting the bills or coins of other 

 states, horse stealing, and some other 

 crimes were punished by branding on the 

 forehead and cutting off the ears. But 

 since the completion of the state prison 

 in 1809, most of these sanguinary punish- 

 ments have been laid aside, and impris- 

 onment substituted in their place. The 

 only crimes wliich are at j)resent punish- 

 able with death, by the laws of tliis state, 

 are murder, killing a person in a duel, 

 perjury, in consequence of which life is 

 taken, and arson, by means of which 

 some person's life is destroyed. Man- 

 slaughter, the second conviction for bur- 

 glary, and maiming by cutting out the 

 tongue, putting out the ej'es, &c., are 

 punished by imprisonment at hard labor 

 in the state prison for life, or for a term 

 of years in no case less than seven. Ar- 

 son without death, burglary, rape, rob- 

 bery, perjury, forgery, theft, adultery, 

 polygamy, incest, counterfeiting, swind- 

 ling, and other high crimes, are punished 

 by imprisonment at hard labor in the state 

 prison not exceeding fifteen years, and by 

 fine not exceeding $1000, or either of 

 said punishments in the discretion of the 

 court. Minor crimes and misdemeanors 

 are punished, either by fine, or imprison- 

 ment in the county jail, or both. 



Since the establishment of the state 

 prison, the annual number of commit- 

 ments has been about 30 ; and much the 

 greater part of these have been for theft. 

 For the time elapsed, and in comparison 

 with the population of the state, very few 

 have suffered capital punishment by sen- 

 tence of a court of civil law, only four 

 executions having taken place since the 

 organization of the government. The 

 first was that of Cyrus B. Dean, who was 

 executed at Burlington, on the 11th of 

 November, 1808, for the murder of Jona- 

 than Ormsbee and Asa Marsh, in the af- 

 fair of the smuggling boat called the 



"• "*•" " as — & 



* Sladc's Vt. Statfi Papers, p. 291. j Ibid, p, 324. 

 ilbul,p. 331. II Ibid. p. 42fi. 



Pr. II. 16 



Black Snake.* The second was that of 

 Samuel E. Godfrey, at Woodstock, in 

 1818, for the murder of Mr. Hewlet, war- 

 den of the state prison. The third was 

 that of Virginia, a colored man, at St. Al- 

 bans, in 1820, for murder. 



The fourth was that of Archibald Bates 

 at Bennington, in February, 1839, for the 

 barbarous murder of his sister-in-law, in 

 Shaftsbury, by shooting her through the 

 head with a rifle ball, as she was sitting in 

 her room, nursing her babe, in the dusk 

 of the evening. Bates aimed his rifle at 

 her through the window, and the ball en- 

 tered her forehead, killing her instantly.! 



Two have died in prison while under 

 sentence of death. One was a Mr. An- 

 thony, at Rutland, who was sentenced to 

 be hung for the murder of a Mr. Green, 

 and who committed suicide by hanging 

 himself in his cell the evening before 

 the day arrived for his execution. The 

 other was a Mrs. Peak, who was to have 

 been executed at Chelsea, for adminis- 

 tering poison to her husband, her hus- 

 band's son and his wife, in consequence 

 of which the son died, and the others nar- 

 rowly escaped death. She died some days 

 before the time fixed for her execution, 

 under circumstances, which rendered it 

 doubtful whether her death was occasion- 

 ed by sickness or poison. 



Previous to the organization of the gov- 

 ernment of the state, but after the constitu- 

 tion was adopted, there was one execution 

 at Bennington for " enemical conduct." 

 David Redding had been accused of sup- 

 plying the enemy on the lakes with pro- 

 visions, andwas charged with several other 

 acts unfriendly to the country. He wag 

 at first tried by a jury of six persons and 

 convicted, and was sentenced to be ex- 

 ecuted on the 6th day of June, 1778. In 

 the mean time John Burnham, an attor- 

 ney at law, who had recently arrived from 

 Connecticut, with Blackstone's commen- 

 taries in his saddle-bags, appeared before 

 the council of safety and showed them 

 that Bedding's conviction had been ir- 

 regular, inasmuch as no man could be 

 legally convicted of a captal crime, but 

 by the verdict of twelve jury-men. The 

 council perceiving their error, granted a 

 reprieve till the 11th of June. 



The people had assembled in great 

 numbers to witness the execution, and 

 when it was ascertained that no execution 

 was to take place, the crowd manifested 

 much dissatisfaction, and fears were en- 

 tertained that they might proceed to vio- 



* See Part II. p. 95. f Not much to the credit 

 of the public taste, the o.'tpciition of Bntps drew to- 

 getlier a crowd estimated from 19,0U0 to 15,000 per- 

 sons. 



