Herman Hamilton Pleas Insanity

Article taken from The Cambridge Jeffersonian, March 9, 1905

 

Columbus, O.,  March 3. - Insanity was the chief plea made to the state board of pardons for the commutation of Herman Hamilton,  The negro who is sentenced to be electrocuted March 17.  It is said that in 1900 Hamilton, while in Indiana, suddenly became violently insane, and was committed to an asylum.  He was released four months later.  In May, 1903, he killed Lee Culver at Portsmouth, where Hamilton worked.  The motive of the murder was robbery.