William Henry Bury - Trial and Execution

Trial and Execution

On Monday 18 March, Bury was arraigned for the murder of his wife; he entered a plea of not guilty. The trial was seen before Lord Young in the High Court of Justiciary on 28 March. Bury's defence team comprised solicitor David Tweedie and barrister William Hay; the prosecution was led by advocate deputy Dugald or Dill McKechnie. The hearing lasted 13 hours. The prosecution witnesses included Ellen's sister Margaret Corney, William's former employer James Martin, the Burys' London landlady Elizabeth Haynes, William's drinking partner David Walker, Lieutenant Lamb and Drs Templeman and Littlejohn. After a break for supper, Hay presented the defence case, which was heavily dependent on Dr Lennox's testimony that Ellen had strangled herself. At 10:05 p.m., Lord Young finished his summation, and the jury of 15 men retired to consider their verdict. After 25 minutes, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty with a recommendation for mercy. Lord Young asked the jury why they recommended mercy, and one of them replied that the medical evidence was contradictory, referring to Lennox's testimony. Dundee had a history of opposition to the death penalty, and the jury may have been trying to avoid passing a death sentence. Young told the jury to retire and reconsider their verdict until they were decided by the evidence one way or another. At 10:40 p.m., they returned with a unanimous verdict of guilty. Lord Young passed the mandatory sentence for murder: death by hanging.

On 1 April, Bury's solicitor, David Tweedie, petitioned the Secretary of State for Scotland, Lord Lothian, for clemency. Tweedie argued that the sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment on the grounds of the conflicting medical evidence and the jury's initial reservations. Tweedie further argued that Bury could have inherited insanity from his mother, who had died in a lunatic asylum. A clergyman whom Bury had befriended, Edward John Gough, minister of St Paul's Episopalian Church in Dundee, also wrote to Lothian asking for a reprieve. The reprieve was rejected on 22 April, and Bury was hanged on 24 April by executioner James Berry. The Dundee Courier printed an article the following day against capital punishment:

There are still to be found persons who profess that when one murder has taken place a second should follow. Yesterday's proceedings amounted to nothing less than cold-blooded murder ... perpetuate judicial butcheries ... it is not pleasant to be assured that it is incumbent upon men to slay one or two of their fellow-creatures occasionally for the purpose of keeping humanity human.

A few days before the execution, Bury confessed to Reverend Gough that he had killed Ellen. At the urging of Gough, William wrote a confession on 22 April 1889, which he asked to be withheld until after he was dead. William claimed that he had strangled Ellen without premeditation on the night of 4–5 February 1889 during a drunken row over money, and that he had tried to dismember the body for disposal the next day but was too squeamish to continue. The latter part of this confession does not match the expert testimony of the physicians, who said that the incisions were made "within at most ten minutes of the time of death" rather than the next day. William stated he had stuffed Ellen's body into the crate as part of a later plan for disposal, but instead concocted the suicide story when he realised that Ellen's absence would be noted.