Picture
Picture
Hunterdon County Courthouse
At ten o'clock, the whole town-
nearly everyone who lives here-
and all who have come from somewhere else to see the trial
(about seven thousand, the newspapers say)
crowd around the courthouse,
waiting.

At 10:27, the bell atop the courthouse
begins to ring, someone
beings to shout "Kill Hauptmann!  Kill Hauptmann!"
and almost the whole town
joins in.

The Trial
by Jen Bryant
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When Hauptmann took the stand he denied all involvement with the crimes. He went on to say that he had been beaten by the police and forced to alter the way he wrote so that his handwriting matched that found in the ransom note. Testimony ended in early February of 1935. Following 11 and a half hours of deliberation, the jury found Hauptmann guilty of murder in the first degree. He was sentenced to death. At 8:44 p.m. on April 3, 1936, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was put to death in the electric chair. Right up to that moment doubts about Hauptmann's guilt existed. Appeals were made all the way to the Supreme Court. None were successful. The Governor of New Jersey himself voiced doubts about the verdict.

PBS Homepage:  American Experience - Lindbergh
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This is one of the two Jury Rooms used during the trial for deliberations.
 
The first jury ballot consisted of five for life imprisonment. The five voters were Pill, Snyder, Smith, Cravatt, and Hockenbury. They voted again. This time, Snyder and Pill voted for death. The next time, Hockenbury changed his vote to death. A fourth vote, and Smith agreed on the death sentence.  Finally, after five votes and many hours of arguing, Cravatt voted for death. He said he was unsure about the death penalty because Hauptmann's life could not be returned if new evidence proved him not to be the killer years later. The jury spent eleven hours and twenty-four minutes in deliberation. Hauptmann was taken to his cell. Once he was released from the handcuffs, he fell. His face made contact with the floor. He was lifted to his little cot, where he began to cry. The defense appealed the verdict, but the Supreme Court of New Jersey upheld the verdict on October 9, 1935.  Hauptmann's lawyers  appealed to the United States Supreme Court, but it was denied.  He was to be electrocuted on January 17, 1936.

by Ronelle Delmont