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ORIGINS OF THE OFFICE OF SHERIFF

Although the office of the sheriff as we know it today is a uniquely American institution, its roots are to be found in early English history. In order to provide for effective social control and to promote efficient government administration, England was divided into regional entities known as shires. In addition to its other functions, each shire had a more-or-less formal law enforcement apparatus headed by an officer called the reeve. The reeve, a royal appointee, was responsible for ensuring basic law enforcement, preserving peace within the shire, arresting wanted offenders, and operating the regional jail. The reeve also was considered to be an agent of the judiciary and was specifically charged with executing court orders. Once English domination of North America's eastern seaboard became a political reality, efficient colonial administration took on new importance, and the imposition of effective social controls became absolutely essential in order to insure the survival of this outpost of the British Empire. In an effort to meet these challenges, the English settlers attempted to transplant traditional British institutions to the colonies. To these basic institutions, however, the settlers added their own unique twist. Each of the colonies was Subdivided into counties not unlike the English shires, for purposes of resource exploitation. regional political administration, and primary social control. In addition to the usual array of government officials, each county had an appointed sheriff (or shire-reeve ) who had the authority to protect life and property, enforce the criminal law, and assist the courts. In short, the sheriff was charged with the responsibility of maintaining social order through law enforcement.

The colonial sheriff, out of practical necessity, acquired the right to deputize assistants and to enlist their aid in the management and operation of the office. Based on English tradition, the sheriff was also vested with posse comitatus-the "power of the county". Under this doctrine, the sheriff was granted the authority to assemble any and all able-bodied men for the purpose of securing their help in apprehending fugitives and/or returning lawbreakers to the county for criminal court action or the imposition of penal sanction. As durable colonial constitutions emerged, the sheriff was almost always designated the chief law enforcement officer in county government. Because populist political sentiment was rising and democratization of the North American colonies (brought on by the geographical separation from England as well as by the unique needs of the colonial Americans themselves) had been accomplished, the sheriff became an elected county official.  Although some of the basic functions of the sheriff's office have been altered over the years, it is safe to say that the structure and the philosophy that developed during the colonial period have remained virtually unchanged in most areas of the United States. In the vast majority of the more than 3,000 counties in this nation, the sheriff-by provision of  the state constitution-is the chief law enforcement officer of the county, is an elected county official, and still has the power of posse comitatus. Despite the complexities of modern-day living and the impact of rapid sociocultural change on contemporary American society, the office of the sheriff-because of its grass roots appeal and its political adaptability-remains a viable institution in most jurisdictions. An examination of sheriffs departments throughout the nation suggests that there is an extraordinary diversity in terms of basic objectives, organizational structures, and assigned functions. Some sheriffs' departments provide very restricted service to the community and still reflect the traditional orientation, that is, the "one-man show"; others are structured as full-service urban law enforcement organizations with quasi-military characteristics, thousands of deputized employees, and a wide variety of specialized functions.

- Participants in American Criminal Justice; By Clemens & Batollas; Copyright 1983

 

 

The Trial of

Yank O'Neil

 

By AI Canali

Illustrations by Michael Moyle

 

John "Yank" O'Neil was hanged for murder on January 7, 1898. The case against him was circumstantial at best and he insisted he was innocent to the end. But was he?

        "Oh, this is hard, gentlemen," John O'Neil said as the jail attendants led him to the gallows and bound his hands and feet. Wearing his black burial suit, he professed his innocence once more before the black hood was placed on his head and the noose tightened around his neck.

      "I forgive all who have wronged me," he said. "May God have mercy on my soul."

      The scene had been substantially different for O'Neil just six months earlier. Accused of the January 8, 1897, rape and murder of Harriet "Hattie" McCloud, a thirty-seven-year-old widow from Shelburne Falls, O'Neil faced three judges and a jury on a rainy day the following July. He was calm and confident-he had even joked with friends and reporters on his way into the court­room—because three days of testimony had failed to link him to the most sensational murder that the area had seen in years. He was beginning to feel like a free man. 

      The prosecuting attorney leading the effort to convict O'Neil was Hosea Knowlton, the attorney general for Massachusetts. Knowlton was no stranger to heinous crime he had nearly convicted Lizzie Borden of the gruesome ax murders of her parents just five years earlier. Tension filled the damp courtroom as Knowlton stood to call the next witness.

      "Will David Davis come to the stand, please?"

      Davis! O'Neil paled and jumped to his feet. He had met Davis in a jail cell in February, when Davis was serving time for stealing chickens. To pass those long days, the two men had talked about women, sports, alcohol —and murder. O'Neil had told Davis a great deal about the evening of January 8.

      "It was liquor that befouled Yank," Davis said to the jury, using O'Neil's nickname. O'Neil had said that he wouldn't be in trouble at all if he had stayed sober, Davis explained. He went on to tell how O'Neil had hoped to get a ten-year sentence assigned out of court, or at most a twenty-five-year sentence if the case went to trial, because in spite of his participation in the crime, "It wasn't me who did the chokin'," O'Neil had said.

      Through a barrage of over 100 subsequent witnesses, Knowlton reconstructed the events surrounding the murder.

      On Friday, January 8,1897, O'Neil started the day with a stiff drink. He continued to pour alcohol down his throat throughout the day, coaxing his friends to buy him drinks when his money ran out. He wandered off to supper a little after 6:00 and was gone for about twenty minutes. When he returned—still drunk—he somehow had enough money to buy his own drinks. He spent around thirteen dollars on alcohol before he found himself broke once more.   

      Early the next morning, George Crittendon set out to look for his daughter, Hattie McCloud. She had gone out shopping the night before and had not yet returned; Crittendon feared she had had a dizzy spell walking back and had fainted somewhere along the road. He walked only a short distance before he found her frozen body. Some change she had received from mer­chants the night before—around thirteen dollars —was missing.

      The report from examining doctors indicated that Hattie had been grabbed violently from behind, raped, and strangled. A reward of $500 was offered for the capture of the killer.

      By the following Tuesday, the police had a good idea that O'Neil was the culprit. They surrounded his Green Street house in Shelburne Falls, arrested him, and took him to the county jail in Greenfield. It was there that O'Neil met Davis.

      By the end of the testimony, the situation was grim for John O'Neil. Davis had explained that O'Neil said a drifter named William O'Connell had done the actual killing; O'Connell, however, cleared himself with a sound alibi. A storekeeper described how O'Neil had entered his store and talked about the murder, grabbing the storekeeper's throat suddenly in a mock demonstration of technique. The jury seemed convinced of O'Neil's guilt.

      In a desperate attempt to save his client's life, lawyer Charles Parkhurst closed the trial with a 4˝-hour speech, using the same logic that had acquitted Lizzie Borden. The twenty minutes O'Neil could not ac­count for, he argued, was not enough time for him to find Hattie, rape, rob, and kill her, and get back to town. At the end of the speech, the trial was officially over.

      The jury deliberated for just over an hour. O'Neil stood as the jury filed into the courtroom; "Guilty as charged," the foreman said with little emotion. O'Neil dropped into his chair, buried his face in his hands, and wept for half an hour as the courtroom cleared.

      The Franklin County Jail on January 7,1898, was filled with over 100 invited spectators and a gallows rented from Hampden County. A hush fell over the room as O'Neil entered.

      "Oh, this is hard, gentlemen," he said as the jail attendants led him to the gallows and bound his hands and feet. Wearing his black burial suit, he professed his innocence once more before the Hack hood was placed on his head and the noose tightened around his neck.

      "I forgive all who have wronged me," he said. "May God have mercy on my soul."

      Sheriff Isaac Chenery pulled the lever on the trap door. Thirteen minutes later, O'Neil was declared dead of strangulation, his dimming pulse recorded by medical officials each minute until his death.

      On January 1, 1900, the electric chair replaced the hangman's noose as the legal method of execution in Massachusetts. John O'Neil, age twenty-seven years, five months, was the last man in the Bay State to swing from the gallows.  

 
 
 

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