Coweta County GaArchives News.....Stephen B. Brinkley hanged June 1877 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: C Gravelle http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00023.html#0005680 October 31, 2006, 1:02 pm Atlanta Constitution & Carroll County Times June 1877 The Daily Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia Newspaper Issue of Saturday, September 16, 1876 THE BRINKLEY CASE The Prisoner Not to be Hung Without a Struggle The conviction of Stephen B. Brinkley, by a jury in Coweta Superior Court, has acquired some interest among our public and curiosity is now aroused to know when that sentence will be allowed to go into effect. The case has become famous all over the state and the recent trial was closely watched by curious public. The counsel who defended the unfortunate man have had a rough time. The fearful crime with which he is charged and the circumstances of the peculiar atrocity surrounding it, rendered it a desperate case from the very beginning. On the 14th of May 1874, Stephen B. Brinkley murdered his wife. The crime was committed in the town of Newnan and the details, although frequently published, have never ceased to be horrible. The unhappy man cut his wife to death with a knife, and the blood of the dying woman fell upon her children as they crowded around her in terror. The husband was tried for his crime at the ensuing term of the Superior Court of Coweta county, found guilty and sentenced to be hung. A motion for a new trial was made by his counsel and overruled. The case was taken to the Supreme Court who affirmed the judgment of the court below. His indefatigable attorneys next sued out a writ of lunacy which was tried before a jury who failed to agree. Governor Smith however respited him until the plea of lunacy could be further inquired into and appointed a board of three physicians, doctors Bank, Long of LaGrange and Logan, to to investigate his mental condition. They reported that they did not see sufficient evidence of his insanity. A motion was then made for a new trial upon extraordinary grounds, argued by General Gartrell and granted by Judge Buchanan. This was at the last March term. The new trial has just been concluded. The case was stubbornly fought on both sides and the jury have again returned the prisoner guilty of murder. A reporter of The Constitution yesterday called upon General Gartrell and obtained from him the following interesting facts relative to his side of the case. The General attributes the verdict mainly to the great prejudice existing against the accused in his community on account of the enormity of the act. The defense rested their case upon the theory that the prisoner was laboring under a delusion at the time of the crime. They admitted that he had reason amply sufficient to distinguish between right and wrong generally, but at the moment of the murder he was the victim of delusion so overwhelming as to relieve him from penal responsibility. The idea that possessed the unhappy man was that his wife was unfaithful to him. He was devotedly attached to her and as devotedly attached to his children, and under the influence of a delirium he could not control, he killed her. The fight to save Brinkley's life is not over by a great deal. A motion for a new trial has been made and will be heard by Judge Buchanan on the third Monday in October. The motion is made upon the refusal of the court to give the court to the 3rd Georgia in charge to the jury, and upon diverse other grounds unneccesary to mention here. Brinkley's lawyers are very confident that they will be able to make a sufficient showing to induce his honor to grant the prisoner another trial, but should he refuse to do so, the case will be again carried to the Supreme Court. It is safe therefore to predict that Brinkley is in no danger of being hung for many months to come. Should a new trial be obtained it is probable that the case will have to be removed to another county as it will be almost impossible to obtain an impartial jury in Coweta county. ---- From "The CARROLL COUNTY TIMES", newspaper, Carrollton, Carroll County, Georgia Newspaper Issue of June 22, 1877 THE LAST OF BRINKLEY (Stephen B. Brinkley) On last Tuesday, Brinkley suffered the extreme penalty of the law by being hung for the murder of his wife. His case has been a notable one in Georgia but there is at last an end to it. His execution, it seems, was not attended with the usual sensational scenes so often witnessed on such occasions. We are told that he went to the gallows without a single mourner. He was morose and silent to the last. When asked upon the scaffold just before his execution if he had anything to say, he said nothing. His children were sent to Tennessee where they will be provided for by his brother. None of his relatives were present to witness the execution. His local attorney, P.F. Smith, left the city in order to avoid the scene. At his request his body was sent to his friends in Tennessee. A correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution writing from Newnan on the day of the execution has this: " Interviewing the condemned man this morning, he was found to be very much troubled on account of his spiritual condition. While he expressed the deepest contrition and prayed frequently, he uttered his conviction that he had no hope of forgiveness. During his confinement he wasted to a mere shadow of her former self and his hair had turned as white as snow. Barring his having no hope hereafter, he had no fear of death and begged repeatedly that they would hasten his execution. After leaving the jail he never uttered a word except in answer to some questions, until he died at the end of the hangman's rope. The execution was private and no excitement prevailed. ----- File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/coweta/newspapers/stephenb2610nw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 6.2 Kb