Van Buren Press Van Buren, Arkansas- Crawford County September 21, 1889 THE DEATH SENTENCE Judge R. H. Powell has passed the sentence of death on J. G. Blankenship and fixed the date of execution on October 17th at Yellville, Ark. Blakenship was convicted at the recent term of the Marion County Circuit Court of rape. The crime is alleged to have been committed on the person of Mary J. Fisher, near Lead Hill, June 30, 1888. Blankenship having been arrested afterward and has been in jail ever since. At the October term, 1888, of the Marion Circuit Court, he was tried, but the result was a hung jury, eleven being for rendering a verdict of guilty and one for acquittal. Immediately after his conviction he wrote a lengthy letter to the Judge protesting his innocence. Judge Powell, after considering the matter, modified the death sentence a little by ordering the doomed man be kept in the Boone County Jail until the 16th of October, and that he be brought back to Marion County on the 16th and executed on the 17th. He was taken to Harrison Saturday. There will be no appeal taken, and the doomed man's life depends now entirely on the clemency of the Governor. Fran Alverson Warren