Page:Special message of the governor of Iowa to the seventeenth General assembly, communicating report of pardons and remissions (IA specialmessageof00iowa).pdf/15

1877.] February 2. Crime, obtaining money under false pretenses. Convicted at the October term, 1876, of the district court of Scott county. Sentence, Additional Penitentiary for fifteen months. Committed October 16, 1876. Pardoned, on the recommendation of the judge, district-attorney, clerk of the court, sheriff of the county, about one-third of the jurors in the case, and many of the citizens of Davenport. The district-attorney says: “I believe his conviction was wrong.” The prosecuting witness says: “I believe that justice in Lytle’s case is now amply satisfied.” It also appeared that he had previously borne a good reputation, which was testified to by many prominent citizens of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and if guilty that it was his first offense.

February 26. Crime, larceny. Sentence, penitentiary for the term of fifteen months. Convicted at the January term, 1876, of the Cass county district court, and committed February 1, 1876. Pardoned nine days before the expiration of his term, on the recommendation of the warden and physician of the Penitentiary. Says the latter, “Alva Hill was consumptive when brought here. He now lies very sick with typhoid fever and erysipelas, with little hope for recovery. The small chance for his recovery dwindles down to none at all, if he has to remain here. If removed there is a little hope!” The warden says, “his behavior while here has been good. We hope a pardon will be granted.”

The physician’s fears proved to be well founded. Hill died two days after reaching home.

March 24. Committed to the Penitentiary of the State October 2, 1876. Sentenced at the September term, 1876, of the district court of Mills county, for the crime of larceny. Term, one year. The district-judge who tried the case, the warden, and the chaplain of the penitentiary recommend pardon. The warden says, “He has served out about one-half of his time, has been a good and obedient boy, always faithful and industrious;” and the chaplain concurs by saying, “If pardoned, and allowed to go home with his father to Massachusetts, I have no doubt of his reformation, and that he will make a good citizen.” I am satisfied, from the statements of the young man’s father, that he had, prior to this offense, been a boy of good character.