Page:Special message of the governor of Iowa to the seventeenth General assembly, communicating report of pardons and remissions (IA specialmessageof00iowa).pdf/4

2 on a charge of manslaughter, for three years. Committed to the Additional Penitentiary May, 1874. Pardoned upon petition of Senator Murphy, the county officials of Scott county, and the city officials of Davenport, and letter of District-Judge Brannan, who tried the case, and of District-Attorney Ellis, who prosecuted. There was some doubt of the sanity of the prisoner at the time the crime was committed. On the whole, I thought the safety of the public sufficiently protected by the punishment already inflicted, and the prospect of the reformation of the prisoner would be increased by his release.

February 11. Crime, assault with intent to commit great bodily injury. Sentenced June, 1875, to six months in the county jail of Johnson county. Pardoned on petition signed by all the county officers, the district judge, the prosecuting witness, and a large number of good citizens; also that he may be used as a witness against a person now in prison on a charge of robbery.

March 4. Committed to the Penitentiary of the State, October 15, 1871, under a sentence of the district court of Webster county, for a term of four years, for false pretenses, to be followed by one of six years for uttering a false and forged token. Having earned full diminution, his first term expired April 15, 1875. It was perfectly clear to me that the two convictions were for precisely the same acts under different names and different indictments, and that the proof of crime in each case was identical. To permit him to serve out his second sentence would be, therefore, to punish him twice for the same offense.

March 10. Committed to the Additional Penitentiary June 2, 1874, for the term of three years, for breaking and entering, in Clinton county. Pardoned in consideration of the fact that this was his first offense, of his youth, and of his previous good character. His pardon was recommended by Senator Merrell, by District-Attorney Ellis, and by a number of the best citizens of De Witt.

March 14. Committed February 4, 1874, to the Penitentiary of the State for five years, for manslaughter, in Pottawattamie county. The prisoner had a wife and four children, from eight to two years of age, dependent upon him. He had been a soldier in the First Cavalry. His offense was committed under great provocation, and probably in self-defense. He had previously borne a good character, and had behaved well in prison. His pardon was recommended by five of the jurors by whom he was found guilty, by Judge Baldwin, I. P. C. Wagner, Senator George F. Wright, Judge Reed, and other prominent