CASE 666 - TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE

The Elizabeth Workman Story

 

Elizabeth Workman was hanged 140 years ago, in Port Sarnia, Lambton County, Ontario, on June 19, 1873.

A scaffold had been specially constructed for one purpose only, to hang by the neck until dead an unfortunate woman. Just before 9:00 AM, a heavy rope noose tied with a hangman’s knot was slipped around her neck, a flour bag placed over her head and drawn down over her face. A small bouquet of white flowers clenched in her hand, Elizabeth Workman uttered her last words in this life.

I can only hope that what I have been going through will serve as a warning to all wives who had drunken husbands, and to all husbands who had drunken wives.

At 9:00 AM, a signal was given to pull the lever that would release the portion of the scaffold on which the woman was standing. A slight swoosh as she dropped through the hole. A momentary thud as the rope tightened.

Following the pronouncement of death by the coroner, the rope was severed. The body of this poor unfortunate woman, now lifeless, fell six feet, crashing down, landing in a heap, in a pit that had already been dug beneath the scaffold to accommodate her mortal remains.

Storytelling is an important part of any community’s heritage and culture.

I have written a story about Elizabeth Workman, the only woman ever convicted and executed under Canadian law following a trial where the jury strongly recommended mercy.

Following her sentencing in March of 1873 in Port Sarnia, Lambton County, petitions requesting commutation of the death penalty were signed by nearly 1,500 local citizens, including the entire Lambton County Council, the jury pool and Alexander Mackenzie, who would later that year become The Dominion of Canada’s second Prime Minister.

Hand-delivered to then Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, these pleas on behalf of the condemned woman were in vain. The hanging took place as scheduled 19 June 1873.

Based on the trial transcript of an actual case numbered in Lambton County Court records as 666-1873, CASE 666 – TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE – the Story of Elizabeth Workman, will be available on Alexander Mackenzie Day (5 August 2013).
One petition written in the spring of 1873, signed by 500 men, read:

To His Excellency Right Honourable The Earl of Dufferin K.P.K.C.B. Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada &c…
We the undersigned inhabitants of Lambton would humbly beg to present to your Excellency as follows…
On the Twenty-first day of March last at the sitting of Assizes for the County of Lambton before the Justice Adam Wilson presiding, one Elizabeth Workman was tried and convicted of the murder of her husband and was sentenced to be hanged on the Nineteenth day of June next.

We are informed and believe that the said Elizabeth Workman was a sober industrious woman of good character who worked hard to support her husband and child though often deprived by her husband of her hard earnings as soon as obtained.
That her husband was very dissipated and cruel and frequently ill treated her compelling her to take refuge in the houses of her neighbours to which treatment she quietly submitted for several years when at last it seems her patience being exhausted she gave him blows that were fatal.

We would therefore while impressed with the Majesty of the Law and the inexpedience with interfering with its proper administration at the same time most earnestly press upon your Excellency’s consideration that this is a special case where by an exercise of the Royal Clemency the unfortunate prisoner who was so sorely tempted would be sufficiently punished the dignity of the Law upheld and Her Majesty’s Loyal subjects in this Country much gratified

We your Petitioners would therefore humbly pray that the sentence of Elizabeth Workman be commuted to imprisonment for life or such other term as your Excellency may seem meet.

And your Petitioners will ever pray so.

The above and many other similar requests were in vain. Elizabeth Workman’s death sentence was carried out. The hanging took place as scheduled in the Sarnia Jail 140 years ago.

Unanswered is the question of why Elizabeth Workman was executed and why she remains to this date the sole exception to the acceptance of the recommendation for mercy in the case of women sentenced to execution here in Canada since Confederation.

Based on what records still exist in newspaper accounts of the day and the trial transcript, Elizabeth Workman was under extreme stress and fear for the life of herself and her son, a stress that had continued on a daily basis for many years. She was what we might call today a battered woman who had nowhere to turn and eventually may have broken under the pressure.

Poor, marginalized, working-class, female, Elizabeth Workman was not well served by a judicial system that accorded her little regard because of this negative characterization, a system that allowed her to be portrayed by the judge in this case as a bad woman who should have acquiesced to her husband’s every wish, in spite of how he mistreated and physically abused her.

Today, legal resources would be available to ensure that such a woman would receive a fair trial and have every opportunity for assistance and legal representation. If similar circumstances and a similar result existed today, it is more likely that she would at most have been found guilty of justifiable homicide and placed in a setting where she could receive treatment that would allow her to return to society.

I believe that it is now time for the Government of Canada to review this case and hopefully find some way to correct this travesty of justice that occurred in the year of 1873 here in Port Sarnia in Lambton County.

The original hand-written records for this court case shown as Capital Case 666-1873 are now held in Canada’s National Archives, filed as: 

Sarnia, County of Lambton Criminal Court, March 21, 1873, NAC, RG13, vol. 1410, File 64A

An in-depth analysis can be found on the internet.   Justice Not Done: The Hanging of Elizabeth Workman, Gaffield, Scott M., printed in Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Volume 20, Number 1, 2005, 

A recent article about this publication can be found on-line at:

 

I have started an international on-line petition for posthumous commutation. To view, go to  

 

 

I am making presentations to help make more people aware about this Travesty of Justice.

 

 

 

Interesting take from local writer Phyllis Humby at

 

Copies of this book are now available at $23.00 Canadian plus tax ($24.15) through The Book Keeper book store in Sarnia  on-line at www.sarniabookkeeper.com or by telephone at (519) 337-3711 or click the button below.