Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1877-08-25

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misd-sds. &rj 81 ooDI=nssis, by hls a
bor. the state fsr the expense il has in
curred in eonvicting him. The execution
must take place NJ, less than two year
after sentence has been pronounced.
Twenty months are 10 lie spent in hard
labor. and the remaining four in solitary
confinement. that he may prepare for
death. The plan is doubtless intended
as compromise between the views of the
friends and the opponents of capital pun
ishment, but it seems not only cruel to
keep the terrOrs Of death before the Of
fender for two years, but to be absurd to
hang him after the expiration of so long
an imprisonment. There is seldom such
doubt of convict's guilt that any great
delay need be required on that account,
and two months are as ample as two
years could be for religious instruction
and meditation. If the murderer is unfit
to live, and such is the theory upon which
capital punishment is based, he should
be executed as speedily as is consistent
with q due regard for his spiritual
interests. If there is any doubt of his
guilt his life should be spared until that
doubt is removed. To keep man two
years with the gallows in prospect, and
ct the same time work him as any other
criminals neither humane nor logical. If
he may be profitably and properly spared
two years, why not ten or twenty2
Yet this queer law has worked we'll in
one ir stance in preventing the execution
Of a possibly innocent man. John P.
Phair would have been hanged last Fri
day, had not Gov. Fairbanks respited him
until the 4th of May. Phair kept com.
pany with a woman If bad character
named Frieze, living in the outskirts of
Rutland. On the morning of June o,
1874, her house was discovered to be on
fire, and on her body being dragged from
the building it was found that her throat
had been cut. Phair's relations with her
had heen notorious, and he was regarded
rs a worthless wretch. It was not strange,
therefore, that suspicion should be excited
against him, and that he should be ar
rested on his return from Boston two
days after. The circumstances were very
strong against him. 1t was proved that
somebody on the day after the murder had
registered himself at the Adams House in
Boston as E. F. Smith, of St. Adams,
Vermont, having in his possession certain
articles afterward identified as owned by
Mrs. Frieze, which he pawned. A shawl
belonging to the woman was left behind
in the room occupied by Smith. The
prosecution assumed the identity of
Smith with Pbair. They claimed to
prove it by the testimony of the pawn
brokers, and by the resemblance of the
handwriting of Smith to that of the pris-
oner. The jury decided that the State
had made out its case, and Phair was
found guilty. Nobody thought other
wise until recently, though he constantly
protested his innocence. We do not pre-
tend that he has fully established the
truth of bis denial, but he has certainly
mentioned facts, or what appear to be
such, that bear strongly enough in his
favor to justify his reprieval.
First, the fire at Mrs. FREEZES house
vas discovered at half-past six on a sum-
mer's morning. long after daylight. As
the building was fimsy wooden struc-
ture, the cunfsgrs;ion could no, have
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Phair claims O. have started foe Boston.
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