American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-11-29
WASHINGTON: SATURDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 80 1851
Communicated
The Power or tho Executive TO Com
mute the Death Penalty.

The Power OF the Executive TO Com
mute the Death Penalty.
MEssRs. EDITORS: Upon the trial of John
Day for murder, at the last term of the Crimi-
nal Court for the District, Gf am right in the
recollection of facts,) after the case had been
given to thejury, that body requested the Court
to inform them whether the President had the
power to commute the death penalty. The
Judge replied in the negatiue; and the District
Attorney, by his silence, acquesced in the de-
cision Of the Court. The inference was, had
the Court decided the other way, that the jury
would have at once returned verdict of gully,
(instead Of being locked up in their room for
several days thereafter with Recommendation
to the Executive to commute the punishment of
death to some punishment of milder charac-
ter. This decision of the Court struck me as
very strange one at the time. My object
now, however, is not to comment upon it, but
to call attention to an extract from the opinion
Of Attorney General CRITTENDEN furnished the
President, upon the application for pardon for
See-see- sat-ma, an Indian sentenced to be hung
for murder in the District Court of the United
States for Missouri. The President acted upon
the opinion of the Attorney General, and commu-
ted the punishment of death to that of impris-
onment in the Missouri penitentiary for life !;
and will act upon it again, presume, whenever,
in his opinion, a case may arise which may
warrant such an interference Of Executive au-
The next term Of the Criminal Court for this
District will commence on the 1st December; and
as there are at least t,oo murder trials to take
place then, it may not be uninteresting or un-
important to our citizens to know the extent of
the power which the Executive has upon the
subject. | therefore enclose you the extract
referred to, which will be found in the fourth
column of the Opinions of the Attorneys Gen.
eral, page 500, now in the course of publica-
ton in this city. tits dated May 10, 1851, and
is as follows
"The general power of pardoning, conferred
by the constitution upon the President, includes
the power Of pardoning conditionally, or of
committing to q milder punishment that which
has been adjudged against the offender. The
communication Of the punishment is but condi-
tional pardon; and that the President may
grant such o conditional pardon has been al
ways recognised and decided United States
VS.. Wilson, Z Pet 1881 Where the condition
| is such that the Government has no power to
carry it into effect, the pardon will operate as
general and unconditional pardon and it is
therefore necessary to consider the means of
carrying into effect the prescribed condition or
| communication. There can be no doubt think,
as to the power of carrying into effect pardon
committing the sentence of death into confne-
ment or imprisonment in any State prison or
penitentiary within the district where the con-
| yiction took place, the use of which may have
been allowed or granted by the legislature of
the State,' &c.-(See the act Of 1926, author
izing such confinement, section l5; A Statutes at
Large, 118 and 739; and the Revised Statutes o,
Missouri, p. 442.'0