On this account the prisoner,
after petitioning more than once for a respite, which he received, was
executed on Tuesday the 10th, eight days after his trial. There did not
exist in the colony at this time a fitter object for example than John
Crow. Unfortunately, the poor wretch to his last moment cherished the
idea that he should not suffer; and consequently could have been but ill
prepared for the change he was about to experience. He had endeavoured to
effect his escape by jumping down a privy a few hours before his
execution; and it was afterwards found, that he had with much ingenuity
removed some bricks in the wall of the hole in which he was confined,
whence, had he obtained the respite of another day, he would easily have
escaped.
Independent of the consideration that this man had long been a proper
object of severe punishment, to have pardoned him (even on any condition)
would only have tended to strengthen the supposition that the
lieutenant-governor had not the power of life and death; and many daring
burglaries and other enormities would have followed. Crow pretended that
he was in the secret respecting the watches which were stolen from the
hospital in October last; but all that he knew amounted to nothing that
could lead to a discovery either of them or of the thief.
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