Execution
Before his execution in his farewell letter to his family, Ross wrote: "The day is coming when my innocence will be proved."
Ross composed himself with dignity for his quiet but resolute statement from the scaffold:
- "I am now face to face with my Maker, and I swear by Almighty God that I am an innocent man. I never saw the child. I never committed the crime, and I don't know who did. I never confessed to anyone. I ask God to forgive those who have sworn my life away, and I pray God to have mercy on my poor darling mother, and my family."
Ross was executed on 24 April 1922 at Melbourne Gaol in a particularly gruesome manner. Authorities had decided to experiment with a four-stranded rope rather than the usual three-stranded European hemp. The four-stranded rope did not run freely through the noose and Ross did not die immediately because his spinal cord was fractured, not severed. Although his windpipe was torn and obstructed by his destroyed larynx, the condemned man continued with rasping breaths and convulsed on the rope. Three times Ross bent his knees and flexed his arms before succumbing, slowly strangled to death by asphyxiation. A prison report later ruled that such a rope must never be used again.
Read more about this topic: Colin Campbell Ross
Famous quotes containing the word execution:
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