XI PARDONS, COMMUTATIONS AND REPRIEVES STATE OF NEW YORK - EXECUTIVE CHAMBER Albany, May 23, 1910 TO THE LEGISLATURE: I have the honor to transmit a statement of the pardons, commutations and reprieves granted by me during the year 1909. CHARLES E. HUGHES. (Signed) Pardons April 17. Frank M. Wandell, Jr. Sentenced May 10, 1906; county, Kings; crime, conspiracy; term, three months; New York Penitentiary. Earnestly recommended by Hon. Herman A. Metz, Comptroller of the City of New York, as a suitable recognition of the service rendered by Wandell and evidence furnished by him, whereby the conviction of his confederates was procured and a large number of fraudulent claims against the city for sewer damages were defeated. Mr. Metz regards Wandell's services as of great importance, a very large amount of money having thereby been saved the city and the prosecution of the business of presenting false claims for sewer damages having been destroyed. Wandell was a mere tool of his fellow conspirators, and I think that by his action he has atoned for the minor part he took in the crime. April 28. William Burns. Sentenced March 21, 1878; county, Onondaga; crime, murder, second degree; term, life; Auburn Prison. Commuted August 4, 1890, to twelve years, four months. and four days. Restoration to citizenship granted October 17, 1894. The commutation was granted upon condition that Burns should forever wholly abstain from the use of intoxicating liquor. With this condition he has strictly complied ever since the day of his discharge nineteen years ago. During the whole period he has lived a sober and industrious life. He has been employed in a large manufactory in Syracuse, beginning as a laborer, and has been promoted from time to time until about a year ago when he was appointed superintendent with full charge of the manufacturing department. Several of the most prominent residents of Syracuse have joined in a petition asking that he may now receive a full and unconditional pardon, and I am of the opinion that he is justly entitled to it. May 12. John Dowling. Sentenced December 23, 1908; county, New York; crime, petit larceny; term, five months; New York Penitentiary. Pardon applied for by Judge Swann who imposed the sentence. He writes that Dowling is in the last stage of consumption, that his presence at the infirmary is injurious to other patients, and that he desires to have him removed to a hospital where he can be properly cared for. He says that he was inclined to suspend sentence on account of Dowling's previous good character, and that the only reason why he sent him to the penitentiary was in order that he might have some place where his disease could be treated. Dowling has served all but eleven days of his sentence. July 22. Frank Kochel. Sentenced November 19, 1908; county, Kings; crime, bribery; maximum term, ten years; Elmira Reformatory. Kochel offered a policemen five dollars to save his wife from arrest for a minor offense; she had two small children and was pregnant. He has been eight months at the reformatory, a sufficient punishment in view of all the circumstances. Judge Kelly who sentenced him recommends his pardon. July 22. Regulus Shippey. Sentenced July 7, 1908; county, New York; crime, grand larceny, first degree; minimum term, I year; maximum term, 6 years; Sing Sing Prison. Shippey was convicted of grand larceny for stealing three bonds. The district attorney now reports to me that, since sentence was imposed, it has been proved that certain testimony given upon the trial and essential to the conviction, was deliberate perjury. It has been established that the three bonds in question were forged, and were not of the value charged in the indictment but were only of nominal value. The district attorney says: "While the facts as known to the court and to the district attorney at the time of conviction and sentence fully justified the verdict and the sentence imposed, the prisoner is now serving sentence for a crime, grand larceny in the first degree, which he did not commit." The maximum sentence which the prisoner could have received for the crime of petit larceny, which is what his offense amounted to, was imprisonment in the county penitentiary for a term of one year; he has now actually served one year in State prison. Whatever may be said of the prisoner's transactions, his further incarceration cannot be justified, and the interests of justice require the exercise of clemency by the granting of a pardon. October 18. Samuel R. Weissman. Sentenced August 12, 1909; county, New York; crime, petit larceny; term, one year, and fine, $500; New York Penitentiary. Granted upon the recommendation of the district attorney, with whose statement Judge Mulqueen concurs. Beside the petit larceny conviction, Weissman has been convicted of grand larceny and has been remanded for sentence until released from the penitentiary. He is only seventeen years old, and Judge Malone and the district attorney are of the opinion that he should be sent to the Elmira Reformatory instead of to the State prison, and that this should be done at once and not after his service of a year in the penitentiary, where he will be associated with hardened criminals.. October 23. Joe Bullinski. Sentenced October 12, 1909; county, Columbia; crime, petit larceny; term, ninety days; Albany County Penitentiary. The property stolen was of trifling value; it was the prisoner's first offense, and the Rev. F. A. Greagan of Cox sackie has made a strong appeal for clemency on account of the illness of the prisoner's wife caused by her husband's arrest; her condition is serious, and it is feared that if he is longer detained at the penitentiary she will not recover. Also recommended by the committing magistrate. December 31. Isaac Bick. Sentenced December 16, 1909; county, New York; crime, violation section 482 of the penal code; term, twenty days; New York City prison. Bick failed to comply with a court order requiring him to make certain payments toward the maintenance of his minor son who had been committed to the Jewish Protectory at Hawthorne for peddling without a license. He is very poor and unable to make the required payments. It appears that the family, since 1907, has been dependent for assistance upon the United Hebrew Charities. The president of this association writes: "In the last analysis then, it would seem that the man is now in the City Prison because the United Hebrew Charities has not provided sufficient funds to maintain his family here and his boy at Hawthorne, his chief offense apparently being that he is the father of a boy who peddled without a license. The number of days that this man still has to serve in prison is not great, but the injustice of his being there at all is so very great that I am taking the liberty of bringing the matter to your attention, in the hope that you can see your way clear to granting him a pardon." Commutations February 5. James P. Hennessy. Sentenced September 25, 1905; county, New York; crime, forgery, second degree; term, seven years; Sing Sing Prison. Commuted to three years, three months and twenty-seven days. The prisoner has rendered important assistance in exposing the misconduct of one of the prison guards, as a reward for which Superintendent Collins asks that his sentence be com |