101 Neb. 85 | Neb. | 1917
By information filed in the district court for Cherry county, Nebraska, the defendant, Wiliiam W. Cryderman, was charged with' the crime of murder in the first degree. It ivas alleged that he did kill and murder, one Nellie Heel-an in said county. The jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, and in their verdict added: “We further find and say that the defendant Wiliiam W. Cryderman shall suffer death.” The court thereupon sentenced the defendant to suffer death by electrocution, and the case has been brought to this court for review.
Mr. Heelan and his wife and daughter resided on a ranch -in Cherry county, and in the summer or fall of 1915 this defendant began working for Mr. Heelan on the ranch, and on the 13th of October it was necessary for Mr. Heelan to be aAvay from home for a short time, and Mrs. Heelan procured a neighbor, Mrs. Layport, to stay with her over night in Mr. Heelan’s absence. In the evening the dwelling house was burned, and the bodies of Mrs. Heelan and Mrs. Layport were found in the ruins. A search Avas immediately made for the defendant, and he was apprehended at Valentine the next morning. He freely confessed the murder, and answered, under oath, without hesitation, the questions that were put to him in regard to it, and finally, Avhén his statement had been reduced to writing, he read it and signed it as a correct statement of the manner in which the crime Avas committed. In this statement he said that he had been hauling hay and coal the day prior to the murder, and he used four horses in hauling coal. While
In O’Hearn v. State, 79 Neb. 513, it was held that under the circumstances there shown punishment of death was excessive, and the sentence was reduced to imprisonment
Hamblin v. State, 81 Neb. 148, was very similar to the facts in the case at bar, so far as the severity of the punishment was concerned. The court said that it was “persuaded that the killing of Rachael Engle was of a most unusual character. There seems to have been no reason for the act. It is insisted by the state that it was prompted by a spirit of wanton, jealous rage, induced by seeing Smith in her company, and that it was a most heartless, cruel, cold-blooded and deliberate murder of an innocent, inoffensive girl, against whom there was no possible cause for ill will or hatred. Viewed from the standpoint of his complete sanity and legal accountability at the time of the shooting, this would seem to be true. She had never given him any offense, had never mistreated him in any way. * * * A solution of the motive which prompted the act is, to the mind of the writer, an impossibility. Plaintiff in error appears to have been most unfortunate and a great sufferer during the greater part of his life. We are fully persuaded that he should never be given his liberty, for he would be a menace to those with whom he should associate. The evidence tends strongly to convince us that, owing to llis physical and mental condition, there may be grave doubts as to his responsibility for his acts at the time of the tragedy, and yet he is neither an idiot, an imbecile, nor a maniac. We can find no justification for taking his life, nor should he ever be discharged from confinment.”
In a somewhat similar case this language is referred to and approved, and the death sentence reduced to imprisonment' for life. Muzik v. State, 99 Neb. 496. So that sec
The judgment of conviction is affirmed, but the penalty is reduced to imprisonment for life.
Sentence reduced. ‘
I do not find in the record any reason for interfering with the verdict of the jury or with the sentence of the trial court.