The Boston Daily Advertiser - Monday, May 27, 1895

London, May 25. -- Oscar Wilde was today found guilty.

The judge sentenced Wilde and Taylor, the latter's sentence having been suspended pending the result of the trial of Wilde, to two years at hard labor each.

The judge finished his charge at 3 o'clock and the jury retired.

Before the jury retired the foreman asked the court if a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Lord Alfred Douglas.

The judge said that no warrant had been issued, whereupon the foreman said: "But if we must consider these letters as evidence of guilt they surely show that Lord Douglas's guilt is equal to that of Wilde."

The Brooklyn Citizen - Saturday, May 25, 1895

LONDON, May 25.– Oscar Wilde, the English playwright, was found guilty of unnatural practices and sentenced to two year’s imprisonment at hard labor to-day. His associate, Alfred Taylor, received a similar sentence.

The trial of Oscar Wilde was resumed this morning, Sir Frank Lockwood continuiung his address to the jury for the prosecution. He dilated upon the intimacy of Wilde and Taylor and said that leniency ought not to be shown to one and not to the other, because of the position and intellect of the one.

Sir Edward Clarke protested against counsel’s confusing Taylor’s case with Wilde’s.

Sir F. Lockwood expressed hope that the jury would not rehard Wilde’s letters as "prose poems," but would appreciate them at their proper level, which was rather lower than that of beasts.

Sir Edward Clarke agrily objected to the language used by the prosecuting counsel, and a heated argument between the two ensued. After a protracted wrangle the Judge interfered and advised Lockwood to confine himself to discussion of the evidence and not to depend upon any rhetorical denunciations of the prisoner.

Mr. Lockwood finished his address by saying that Wilde’s own admission point conclusively to his guilt.

The Judge, in summing up, said that Wilde had confessed that his conduct in regard to Lord Alfred Douglas had been such that he (the Judge) could not ask the jury in the previous trial to say that there was no ground for charging him with having posed as a criminal.

The Judge, in the course of his charge to the jury, dealt with each of the charges contained in the indictment, his opinion being plainly and strongly against the prisoner. In regard to Wilde’s letters to Lord Alfred Douglas, he said that they might be "prose poems," but they were nontheless a poison to a young man’s mind, and the writer was clearly not a desirable companion for the young.

The judge finished his charge at 3 o’clock and the jury retired. Before the jury retired the foreman asked the Court if a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Lord Alfred Douglas.

The judge said that no warrant had been issued, whereupon the foreman said: "But if we must consider these letters as evidence of guilt they surely show that Lord Douglas’ guilt is equal to that of Wilde."

The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the judge sentenced Wilde and Taylor (the latter’s sentence having been suspended pending the result of the trial of Wilde) to two years at hard labor each.

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