Page:Special message of the governor of Iowa to the seventeenth General assembly, communicating report of pardons and remissions (IA specialmessageof00iowa).pdf/17

1877.] state, for a term of seven years. Committed June 18, 1875. Pardoned on the recommendation of the judge and district-attorney who tried the case, and about three hundred citizens of Union county. The petitions for pardon were based principally on the ground of previous good character, and subsequently discovered testimony mitigating his criminality. Says the district attorney: “Considering the time he has been in prison, his age, and the indorsement of his neighbors of his standing, and the good name he has borne as a citizen and a soldier during the war, I heartily indorse the application for his pardon.” The warden of the penitentiary says, “Whitman’s character and conduct here have been the very best. He goes about his work much more as if he were a free man than a convict; he works outside the prison-walls, and alone. I have no fears of an attempt to escape. He needs no watching.” Considering his well-known peaceable character, his subsequent good conduct, the circumstances under which the crime was committed, and the punishment already suffered, I think the ends of justice have been fully attained.

July 19. Crime, larceny. Sentence, penitentiary for eight years. Convicted at the November term, 1874, of the district court of Clinton county. Committed November 18, 1874. On account of insanity be was transferred March 28, 1877, from the penitentiary of the state to the hospital for the insane at Mount Pleasant. Pardoned on petition of the Hon. Henry W. Rothert, president pro tem. of the Senate, and of the brother of the said James Crawford. Pardon granted upon the express condition that the said James Crawford be taken by his friends from the state immediately upon his release, and that he remain beyond its limits, until the expiration of the term of his sentence. [At the time of his release, he was taken in charge by his brother and removed at once to his friends in Cincinnati, Ohio.]

July 30. Crime, larceny; sentence, Penitentiary for six months. Convicted at the September term, 1876, of the Muscatine county District court. At the same term of said court, he was convicted of the crime uttering and publishing as true a certain false and fraudulent note for which he was sentenced to the Penitentiary for the term of one year, which term he has served out in full. Pardoned for the second term of six months, on recommendation of the district-judge, the district-attorney, the sheriff, the clerk of the district court, and the county recorder. The county auditor and the clerk of district court say, that they “were acquainted with said Towle, when