Billy was sentenced on July 12. He was returned to Devils Lake on the train with his older brother, Sheriff Wayness & Judge McConnell. A new trial was declined. The judge took the opportunity to talk face to face with Billy about his “manslaughter in first degree.” This has highly affected his family….his parents, his brother, & his uncle... along with the community.
The words of the judge to Oswald, "You are a young man. I was raised in a state where it is prescribed in the constitution that punishment for certain crimes shall be administered with a view to the reformation of the criminal. There are crimes, however, where there is no hope. In murder and in treason there is no safety to society. Your case may be said to come within this category. Although there is no doubt as to your guilt, yet the verdict of the jury was manslaughter in the first degree, and I am to assume that the verdict is right. Under the law the minimum of punishment for manslaughter in the first degree is four years imprisonment, while the maximum is for life. It remains entirely with the court, and in your case I am seriously perplexed in deciding upon the limit of time. I have thought that you deserve the highest and most severe penalty. Again, I have been told that you were a peaceable citizen when out of liquor. However all this may be, your old parents are brokenhearted, and you alone are to blame. They only words your aged father ever said to me were, “Don’t be too hard on my poor boy,” It was all he could say, and the words are full of meaning to a thoughtful mind. Your mother appeared but once in this courtroom during the trial - when the arguments were made, and there is a sore lesson for you in her bearing on that occasion. Your uncle called upon me in your behalf recently and said that you had conducted yourself properly prior to coming to Dakota, and that they still have hope of reclaiming you to moral paths and walks or rectitude. Your brother has told me that in your boyhood days your demeanor was the reverse of the life you seem to have led the two or three years prior to the commission of this crime; and all this has had a deep impression upon my mind. On the other hand, here is society. The law must be obeyed, and its majesty and dignity must be protected. While I feel a deep sympathy for you and a deeper sympathy for your family, there is but one duty for me to perform. Until now I have not had an opportunity, and will not have it again, to express my opinion of the line of defense sought to be dragged into your case. For this of course you are not to blame, and it is not to be considered in passing sentence. I refer to the theory that McWeeney’s death was the result of heart-burst, and regard the whole of that part of the defense as a fraudulent proceeding. I was heartily disgusted with it at the time, but was not then in a position to say so. It was a bold thing to say, and attempt to prove, that McWeeney died from the effects of heart-burst. You killed McWeeney; that is all there is to it. The heart-burst theory cost the county heavily, and that makes it a double wrong. But as I have said, I do not propose to be influenced by this part of the defense; it is the merest balderdash. Considering all the circumstances, I have concluded that twelve years imprisonment would not be out of keeping with the crime you have committed and the verdict returned by the jury. I therefore sentence you to twelve years confinement in the penitentiary at Bismarck from today noon."1
The newspaper reporter observed Oswald as he was given his sentence. "Oswald stood with bowed head during the delivering of Judge McConnell’s remarks, and when the sentence was pronounced he raised his head sufficient to make a slight bow of thanks to the court. He betrayed no outward feeling throughout the entire proceeding, and when he had reached the depot in company with the sheriff and his deputy his face had lighted up and he frequently smiled as he nodded to acquaintances he passed on the way. Quite a number of friends gathered about him on the platform and he was the recipient of something of an ovation up to the ringing of the locomotive bell. He boarded the smoker, followed by his brother, Sheriff Wagness and Deputy Flumerfelt, the train sped out for the east, and Oswald’s back was turned upon the scene of his “rough pleasantries.” Let us hope that he may emerge from his confinement a better man and a wiser."2
Three years later on 31 Oct. 1889, Oswald was pardoned of his crime by Gov. Arthur Calvin Mallette (1842-1896).
 |
| Governor Arthur Calvin Melette of Dakota Territory and North Dakota. Wikipedia.Public Domain. |
 |
Jamestown weekly alert. (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]), 03 Dec. 1891. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042405/1891-12-03/ed-1/seq-4/> page 4, column 3.
|
Billy Oswald seriously applies the judge's advice & completely turns his life around by settling in a small community in Cascade Co., Montana. He meets Jane "Jennie" M. Cooper & they are married, two years later on 19 November 1891.
1 Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]), 17 July 1886. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88076514/1886-07-17/ed-1/seq-1/>
2 Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]), 17 July 1886. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88076514/1886-07-17/ed-1/seq-1/>
No comments:
Post a Comment