reared and educated her in the vices which it now deplores.
It took the jury just forty-five minutes to reach a decision against me.
Ten minutes of this time, as I learned from newspaper accounts, were
devoted to prayer, that the Almighty should point out the right way to
decide the case. Evidently the god, to whom the jury prayed,
demonstrated that it was their duty to convict me. For convict me they
did, by bringing in a verdict of murder in the first degree. My sentence
was that I pay the penalty of the crime with my life by being
electrocuted.
The trial was severe and brutal from beginning to end, from my point of
view. I was bullied by the prosecutor, scathingly censured by the judge,
libeled by the press, cursed by the public, and deserted by my own
attorney. I was treated like a cowardly beast of the most depraved type.
But with all the abuse that was heaped upon me, I endured it without a
murmur, calmly claiming that I was not responsible for the deed, but
perfectly willing to take any punishment the law meted out to me. There
was one thing, however, which stood out prominently amidst the many
shoals of my misfortune, which made me feel that I had not lived in
vain. My faithful little band of followers, whom I had taught the
principles of Natural Law, remained loyal to me until the very end. Not
one member of the society was there who would believe that I was guilty
of such an atrocious crime. They insisted that there was some mistake,
and spent much time and money in trying to ferret out the mystery. They
called upon me as often as the prison regulations would permit, and amid
scenes that were touching, protested their undying fidelity to me and
the cause I espoused. Each individual promised most solemnly to carry on
the work I had begun as long as his life lasted, and I feel sure that,
although the end of my time is drawing near, the work entrusted to me by
the great Sagewoman is born again, and will grow to huge proportions as
time passes on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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