Page:Special message of the governor of Iowa to the seventeenth General assembly, communicating report of pardons and remissions (IA specialmessageof00iowa).pdf/16

14 April 2. Sentenced at the January term, 1877, of the district court of Johnson county, for the term of three years, in the Additional Penitentiary, for rape. The sentence was commuted by Governor Kirkwood January 30, 1877, to six months’ imprisonment in the county jail of Johnson county. Pardoned on recommendation of Senator Kirkwood, Hon. John P. Irish, Hon. Rush Clark, Dr. Pryce, and many other citizens of Iowa City. They represent that he was suffering with rheumatism, induced by being confined within the damp walls of the jail. Dr. Pryce says, “I consider him in a very critical condition, and his life endangered unless removed to better and dryer quarters.” The pardon is granted to save life or prevent permanent disability.

April 25. Crime, larceny. Convicted at the March term, 1875, of the district court of Buchanan county, and sentenced October 1, 1875, to imprisonment in the Additional Penitentiary, for one year and six months. Pardoned on recommendation of Judges Adams, Rothrock, and Seevers; also, on a petition signed by nine members of the Buchanan county bar, and one numerously signed by the citizens of said county. The petition for pardon was mainly based on affidavits of newly discovered evidence, which, if genuine, were sufficient, in the opinion of some of the judges of the supreme court, to acquit Hunt could they be used. I have become satisfied of the genuineness of the affidavits, and have concluded therefore to grant the pardon, especially as I do not think the case originally a strong one.

May 30. Crime, burglary. Convicted at the February term, 1872, of the Lee county district court. Sentence, Penitentiary for the term of five years. Committed February, 1872. Allen is entitled to diminution from his sentence for good behavior. His term will expire June 24. Pardoned upon recommendation of the warden and chaplain of the Penitentiary. They say, “He is one of our best prisoners, was unfortunate, had his thigh badly shattered by the bursting of a grindstone, which has permanently crippled him. He has cheerfully obeyed all the rules of the prison. We certainly think he ought to be pardoned a month at least before the expiration of his time.” I think his punishment has been sufficient, and that the ends of justice, under all the circumstances, have been fully satisfied.

July 3. Crime, manslaughter; of which he was convicted at the June term, 1875, of the district court of Union county. Sentence, confinement at hard labor in the penitentiary of the