Laura Jane Harvey Murder: Part Thirteen

Forty-five minutes after being given lengthy instructions on how they were supposed to analyze the case against Lant McComb, the jury came back with their decision which was presented to Judge Trimble by the jury foreman, H.D. Hall.

We, the jury, find the defendant GUILTY of murder in the first degree. 

The defendant's lawyers immediately filed a motion for a new trial.

The court appointed the following Tuesday morning for sentencing and recessed for the evening.

On June 13, 1864, court resumed at 8 a.m. with Judge Trimble once again presiding. The Judge directed that prisoner be brought into the court and the Sheriff did so. B.A. (Lant) McComb was directed to stand up and Judge Trimble passed the following sentence upon him:

"Benjamin A. McComb, you have been charged by indictment in due form found and presented to this court by a grand jury of the county of Wapello in the State of Iowa, with one of the highest crimes known to the law - the crime of murder. To this indictment you have pleaded; 'not guilt.' A jury of the county duly empaneled and sworn have patiently investigated this charge made against you. You have had what the court deems a fair and impartial trial. You have had the aid of very faithful and able counsel; all the proceedings have been conducted with deliberation and fairness as is believed, and the jury to whom your cause has thus been submitted, have upon proper deliberation returned into court their verdict declaring you 'guilty of murder in the first degree.'

"Have you any cause to show, or anything to say why the judgement of this court should not now be pronounced against you on said verdict"

Benjamin McComb replied, "I don't know as I have."

Judge Trimble continued, "So far as the action of this court is concerned the verdict returned by the jury is taken as absolutely true, and accepting that verdict as the evidence against you, on the grave charge preferred, you stand convicted of one of the highest crimes known to the law - a crime, the commission of which forfeits the life of the offender. It is a very unpleasant, very painful and very solemn duty to pronounce the judgement of the law - in a cause involving life and fraught with consequences so terrible but it is a duty from which I cannot escape, even if I sought to do so. In the discharge of that duty, I am not actuated by any feeling of revenge growing out of the heinous and terrible character of the crime you have committed. I commiserate you in your present unfortunate and apparently almost friendless condition, but this commiseration can avail you nothing. The stern mandate of the law is peremptory - it cannot be avoided.

"Our law is supposed to be unusually tender of human life. It forbids capital punishment save for murder under circumstances indicating total depravity of heart or of murder perpetrated willfully, deliberately and premeditatedly.

"The jury, by their verdict in this case say, that you not only killed Laura J. Harvey, with 'malice aforethought,' but that you have committed the dark and terrible deed 'willfully, deliberately and premeditatedly.' It is difficult to conceive how any motive however powerful could have prompted you to the commission of so dreadful a crime - when we consider the age and sex of the deceased, her youth, inexperience and innocence, for it is impossible to believe she could in any manner have given you offence - we are shocked beyond expression at the enormity of the deed. Society, speaking through the law, has declared that he who is thus depraved, thus wholly regardless of the dearest rights and interest of his fellow men, regardless of every impulse of humanity - must die. And while the natural sympathies of the heart, after so great a lapse of time since the bloody tragedy was enacted, for a criminal participation in which you now stand condemned - a lapse of time sufficient to allow the baser passions of our nature to cool - might suggest a less terrible punishment, the stern demands of the law will not yield to this suggestion. Your fate is sealed! I can offer you no hope -  no consolation. I can only direct and recommend your attention and enquiries to the minister of God - to the Bible - and to the Christian religion, which may afford consolation in preparation for the sad and miserable fate that awaits you and your hope for a better, happier, life when you have met and suffered that fate. We are taught in the Sacred Volume that there are sources of consolation to those who no longer hope anything in this life, and however dark the crime you have committed, you may still find reasons for hope in that merciful religion, whose founder declared to the penitent malefactor executed by his side 'This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.'

"To that religion and its ministers then let me earnestly recommend you - sincerely hoping you may improve the short time allotted you in preparation for the solemn charge that approaches so rapidly and certainly.

"The object of punishment is not vindication. The lawmakers and courts are influenced by no spirit of revenge in imposing punishment for crime. The object is twofold; the protection of society, and the reformation of the offender. But in crimes so dark and appalling as that you have committed - display a character so desperate and dangerous - the considerations of social protection rise paramount to every other; and in view of the seeming absolute necessity demands the destruction of the perpetrators. Such is the mandate of the law. Obedient to the mandate, and in discharge of the painful duty it imposes, I not declare, adjudge and order, that you, Benjamin A. McComb, charged and found guilty of the murder of Laura J. Harvey - on the 27th day of July, A.D. 1864, at the hour of 12 M., said day, within two miles of the corporate limits of the city of Ottumwa, in the county of Wapello, in the State of Iowa - shall be hanged by the neck till you are dead. And I farther order the Sheriff of said Wapello County to fully execute this sentence and judgement of the Court."

H.H Trimble, Judge

Benjamin A. McComb was said to receive the sentence without any apparent motion, preserving the same indifference that he had displayed throughout the trial.