Death Sentence for Charles Clarke
A judge in Olympia denies a new trial for a man convicted of murdering a 'sporting woman,' setting the date for his execution.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Olympia, Wash.—Judge Linn has overruled the motion for a new trial in the case of Charles Clarke, recently convicted of murder in the first degree for the killing of Lela Page, a sporting woman. Clarke's attorney has entered the usual formal exception to the ruling and will at once perfect an appeal to the supreme court. Clarke will be sentenced by Judge Linn on next Monday to hang. He is still confined in the county jail and is in excellent spirits. His mother is ill after the long strain incident to the trial and lives at her home here in almost destitute circumstances.
“Clarke will be sentenced by Judge Linn on next Monday to hang.”
This case reflects the era's brutal intersection of moral judgment and capital punishment, specifically regarding the life and death of marginalized women, referred to then as 'sporting women.' The reporting emphasizes the defendant's emotional state while leaving the victim's history as little more than a descriptor of her social class.
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