Meredith Davis - Crime

https://theoviebooks.wordpress.com/ "The Accusing Voice" is a short story in four chapters. It opens at a court trial in Chicago as a man named Bland, convicted of murder, is sentenced to death. The story is told from the point of view of the foreman of the jury, named Defoe. The singular experience of Allen Defoe. “We, the jury, find the defendant, Richard Bland, guilty of murder in the first degree, in manner and form as charged.” Allen Defoe, foreman of the twelve men, listened with impassive face as the judge read away the life of the prisoner in the dock—the man whose death warrant Defoe had signed only a few minutes before. As the judge finished, Defoe glanced warily toward the prisoner. Somehow, he preferred to avoid catching his eye. Again the judge spoke, and this time his voice was hurried and strained: “The sentence of the court is that the prisoner be taken, between the hours of seven a.m. and six p.m. on Tuesday, in the week beginning October 22 next, from the place of confinement to the place of execution, and there be hanged by the neck until he is dead—dead—dead!... And may God, in His infinite wisdom, have mercy on your soul!” In Public Domain First Published 1923 Ovi eBook Publishing 2024