1852: He Only Aimed for the Knees: John Newing Hanged for Murder Anyway
In October 1851, at a shearers’ hut on a station on the Castlereagh, a Chinese labourer named John Newing burst in armed with a shear blade lashed to a pole and stabbed a fellow countryman, Hing, in the groin. Bystanders wrenched the weapon from him, but he returned with two knives before he could be disarmed again, and Hing bled out within minutes.
At his trial at Bathurst in August 1852, defence counsel argued there had been no intent to kill, telling the court that Newing himself had said he aimed only for the knees. The jury was unmoved and returned a verdict of guilty, and Newing was sentenced to death without hope of mercy. He went to the gallows the following month alongside an unrelated condemned man, Timothy Sullivan, in an execution remembered chiefly for how badly it was botched.
Unable to speak or understand English, and with no interpreter willing to attend him at the end, Newing left no final statement and died in silence.
