The jury in the Cronin case, after a deliberation of
nearly three days, arrived at a verdict on December 16th. All twelve jurymen thought Burke, O'Sullivan, and Coughlin, the actual slayers, guilty of murder in the first degree; Kunze, the driver, guilty of manslaughter ; and J. F. Beggs, who was supposed to have ordered the sentence of the Clan-na-Gael to be carried out, not guilty. The jury in Illinois, however, is entrusted with the power of passing sentence—a strange reversion to the despotic method of ancient democracies—and on this subject the jurymen were not unanimous. Eleven considered hanging the just penalty for the murderers, but one was opposed to that view on "religious" grounds, and held out with such obstinacy that one of the jurors nearly died of over-strain. The eleven therefore gave way, and the twelve unanimously passed a sentence of penal servitude for life on the three first named, and three years' imprisonment on Kunze. The American Press is exceedingly severe in its comments on a sentence which it considers a denial of justice, the prisoners having deserved death, and the jurymen were hooted as they walked home. We have commented on the verdict elsewhere, but may remark here that, according to the
telegrams before the verdict, desperate efforts were made to terrorise the jury, who were specially protected by a guard of State troops.
