1834: Acquitted by Half the Jury, Hanged by the Other Half: A Sydney Wife Murder
An inquest into the death of Sydney woman Maria McCormack ended in deadlock: seven jurors voted that her husband, Patrick McCormack, had not killed her, while five held firm for wilful murder. The numbers favoured him, and he walked free, the matter apparently closed.
The authorities refused to let it rest. McCormack was re-arrested and brought to trial, where a jury took barely half an hour to convict him of beating his wife to death. He was sentenced to hang, and the sentence was carried out in Sydney on this day in 1834.
McCormack made no confession on the scaffold, going to his death without admitting guilt or protesting his innocence.
